"Ours is a time of impermanence, of virtual reality in which acts become speech, and speech is said to include the basest actions. The effect is that both speech and action lose their moral power. Whether it is the small gesture that adorns daily life or a common respect for the national flag, our public discourse seems to have lost touch with the symbolic, and therefore with much of the grace of public life. American society no longer seems able to value simple gifts, like the respectful gestures that make it a society instead of just a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing much."

—Paul Greenberg