If I were asked to unite the country – this is not likely to happen – the first thing I would do is celebrate a new holiday. I’d call it National Dog Appreciation Day.

Our love of dogs may be one of the last things we can all agree about. Would it be possible to unite the country by focusing on how much we love dogs?

I believe if there were Labs in residence in Congress and the White House, our world would be different.

There is little else in America that is not controversial.

Yesterday, while I was visiting Bishop Maginn High School, I got to see the now somewhat famous basketballs we bought last week. They have a bit of back story all their own.

They are all sitting eagerly in the supply room waiting for their first games. The gym teacher is grateful.

I think the country was on edge last week.

I could tell, because almost every single thing I did was challenged by somebody, from raising money for basketballs for doing business with Amazon.

When Bishop Maginn school officials were drawing up their new Wish List, the school’s gym teacher begged them to put in some new basketballs.

The school didn’t have any.

The kids who come in off of the streets every morning to play (the school opens its doors to neighborhood kids in the summer are welcome to use the gym.

But to play, they had to bring their own basketballs, even though they were torn and flat and battered.

Sue Silverstein warned him that this might be controversial, she said, but the gym teacher pleaded so persuasively she agreed.

I saw absolutely nothing controversial about basketballs, we supported a soccer team for nearly two years and bought lots of soccer balls, and nobody squawked even once.

Sue was right, several people wondered why they should buy basketballs as opposed to school supplies or clothes. The basketballs were all purchased in minutes, so they didn’t bother too many people.

The complaints were kind of fuzzy, people couldn’t really say why they balked at the now mildly controversial basketballs.

But if you write in public, as I do, you learn quickly that everything is controversial, at least to somebody. I always reply when I think the discussion is valuable and could be useful to others. I am obsessed with transparency.

People have the right to ask about things, and it’s my duty to try to explain when I can.

Bishop Maginn is that rare institution that does things it doesn’t have to do and sees itself on a mission to do good and help the needy and the vulnerable.

Kids in some neighborhoods in Albany need a place to go in the summer to keep them off the streets, and so Bishop Maginn opens up its gym, which is full of basketball players every morning.

The school is also building up their own phys ed program and will need all the basketballs they can get. The gym teacher is very happy, thanks to you.

I was happy to see these basketballs, I might be hallucinating, but they seemed happy and cheerful to me, and eager to get out there and used.

Without some new basketballs, the kids can’t really play. So thanks for supporting this, I have absolutely no doubt it was a good thing to do and will help many young people.