Ramtin Arablui

I have a 10-year-old and I always make my son put his hat over his heart during the national anthem.

And friends of mine are like, why?

And I say...

Because there's an idea at the root and the origin of this country that if we don't fight for, that if we don't, to some extent, understand and revere the ideas, and I'm not talking about flawed human beings.

We should always be wary of putting anyone on a pedestal, a human being.

But the ideas are ones which if we don't,

understand and revere, then one day we may not have them.

And there's a great line from P.T.

Anderson's new movie where Leonardo DiCaprio's character says to someone else, you know, freedom's a funny thing.

You don't appreciate it until it's gone.

And I feel that way about the ideas, right?

And so I think once, do you think, you hope that you're

Kind of renew at least an appreciation or understanding for those ideas.

I say optimism is the new punk rock.

And what's, yes, and what, this brings me to another moment in the series where Jane Kamensky, the historian, says, because I think it's related, where she says, I think to believe in America is rooted in American, in the idea of possibility, that that's what everyone was fighting for.

And that is, no one wrote possibility, right, in the Constitution or anywhere else.

It's subtext.

That still lasts to this day.

And yes, and what is really haunting me about that, even though it's a beautiful moment and a beautiful sentiment, what haunts me about that is like, look, you and I are sitting here, we're employed, right?

We live in some level of comfort, okay?