My friend Sally Jenkins is a sports columnist at the Washington Post. I’ve always been a big fan. Her father, Dan, is my favorite writer of all time. The family’s musings have been constant sources of inspiration.

Sally posted something Sunday on Facebook that we all need to read. And absorb.

“I was wandering through the smoke the day after 9-11 and I interviewed a lady who lived near the World Trade Center,” Jenkins wrote. “I asked her how she felt about it all. She said something to the following effect: ‘This was a single act of evil. It was followed by a hundred thousand acts of good.’

“So, please,” Jenkins wrote. “Whatever your response to Charlottesville, just make sure you are on the longer list. Make sure of it. That's how we will know who we are as a country.”

Have more impactful words ever been written?

Words we truly need to comprehend?

Are we capable of a hundred thousand acts of good?

Straight up: You want to dismiss a hundred thousand acts of good as idealistic kumbaya? Be our guest, as they sang in “Cabaret.” Free country. Just know that you are part of the problem. Because the solution isn’t getting angry over what amounted to an act of terrorism in Virginia. The solution isn’t grandstanding. The solution isn’t about who’s right or uses the best forms of rhetoric.

The solution is doing a hundred thousand acts of good. A little every day. That’s how we know who we are as a country.

The question: How many people are really interested?

Or would you rather change the channel and prefer people stay off your lawn?

Only you can answer those questions.

But there are a million ways you can do good. If you want.

I’m going to write a column in the next few days, for instance, about a young man in New London who needs a kidney transplant. He’s 21. He needs our help both with a proper match and some money.

Are you willing to help him?

Are you, for example, willing to volunteer somewhere, maybe in a school or a shelter?

Ask a teacher if he or she needs school supplies?

Help a coach?

Cook a meal for a friend just … because?

Donate your time?

Hand the drive-thru cashier at Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s a 20 to pay for people behind you that you don’t even know?

Hold a door some somebody?

Look. I’m not saying feeling anger over the act in Charlottesville — or the reactions to them — is a character flaw. I have questions here, too. Like why white people need to march for anything in this country. I mean, what is it we don’t have? Is there some privilege we’re lacking?

What, I can’t ask?

It’s just that the answers are irrelevant. Nothing will change what happened in Virginia unless we change how we behave. A hundred thousand acts of good. Nobody’s saying you need to go build a church. But if you have time and means — and even if you don’t — why aren’t we all capable of a hundred thousand acts of good?

I know many of you don’t want to read this in the sports section. But I’ve always believed no other aspect of society reveals our true character better than sports. It’s competition. And that’s when the fangs come out. Simple observation at a sporting event — from how the players conduct themselves to how the fans behave — offers quite the insight on who we are. As individuals and a society.

I see it every day.

I see good.

I see not so good.

I see a reflection on what we’ve become.

It’s the apocryphal “work in progress.”

And so in the ever noble pursuit of progress, I’m asking we heed Sally Jenkins’ words. OK. So you get to own whatever reaction you want to Charlottesville. But after that, there’s more. There must be more. You can react to one act of evil or participate in a hundred thousand acts of good.

Your choice.

My choice.

That’s what makes us … us.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro