Joy cometh in the morning.

So the Psalmist tells us.

Each day it seems we find ourselves weeping more in the night than anything else. The unthinkable events of yesterday cannot help but merge into the still all-too-raw memories that come with another arrival of September 11, even 24 years on. The evil can be overwhelming, and candidly, I’m still processing.

Yet there are profound reasons for hope. For many of us, that hope is anchored in faith. We can also find hope in the outpouring of love and calls for civility from all corners, enough to drown out the ugliness that seeps from the fringes and threatens to infect our society. Hope emerges from the energy—even from those with whom he disagreed—at Charlie’s events and in his outreach on campus. It speaks to something enduring in the human spirit that transcends political divides.

Hope, too, lives in the memory of the togetherness we all experienced after the 2001 terrorist attacks, even if that unity of spirit and country feels distant today. We found strength in our differences and our similarities, in our shared commitment to our fellow Americans and to something greater than ourselves.

We can fuel that hope and commit ourselves anew to living the fundamental principles of free speech, civil discourse, and liberty that have been the bedrock of our republic for nearly 250 years. These aren’t merely abstract ideals to ponder in quiet moments. They must guide our daily lives, especially for those of us engaged in the vital work of building a better state, country, and world through the policy process.

I’ve said it many times: rigorous debate and discourse is not just valuable, it’s essential to democracy itself. There is no place for violence of any kind in our public square. We weep and pray for the Kirk family and the TPUSA team in particular. Their lives will never be the same, and that reality should sober us all.

But even in this darkness, indeed, joy cometh in the morning. Let the clouds part and dawn emerge. Let us be the ones who choose light over shadow, discourse over destruction, hope over despair. Our country deserves nothing less.