By Pam Bloom

Memorial Day was a day of reading and reflection at my house.

I lived in Arlington, Virginia, in the early 1970s and saw Arlington National Cemetery daily as I worked at adjacent Fort Myer. My husband was a U.S. Army chaplain’s assistant and his work included weekly burial services at our national cemetery. I am thankful our daily work routines included this reminder of sacrifice, and I’ve never forgotten the magnitude and importance of those graves. I see our common grief for our dead as one of the things that still unites our country. In light of recent events, John F. Kennedy’s words are most meaningful this Memorial Day, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest form of appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

After reading Memorial Day posts by my elected officials and friends, I wonder how much honor the people and Congress bring to Kennedy’s words and the gratitude we regularly profess on national holidays. Shouldn’t a national security issue such as Jan. 6th also unite us? After viewing the attack on our U.S. Capitol on TV, can we really allow some in Congress to dismiss or reinvent reality rather than face it and investigate? Where is our common ground as a nation, if not in finding out the truth about the Jan. 6th insurrection?

At Monday’s Memorial Day service at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, President Biden referred to empathy as being the fuel of a democracy. Digesting the thought that our ability to be aware of others and their feelings is a keystone to our democracy led me to noted author and historian Jon Meacham’s keynote speech on Jan. 28th to the Florida Supreme Court Historical Society. Meacham spoke of curiosity, candor, and empathy being bedrocks of our American experience. He also described empathy as being “the fuel, it’s the gasoline of a democratic republic. Because if we don’t see each other as neighbors, if we simply see each other as warring factions, then the covenant breaks down … The capacity to see ourselves as part of the whole, as Dr. King called ‘the mutual garment of history’… is in fact the living heart and the tangible heart of a democracy.”

How do we protect this fragile democratic republic if not together and through an emotional awareness, that link between self and other?

As we leave Memorial Day behind and approach July 4th, may we continue to build curiosity, candor, and empathy. These are three building blocks of our American traditions and the American experiment in all its imperfection. May our representatives find the courage to stand for our country and the truth rather than fulfill favors to a party. May the people listen and search for the good of the whole. Ask the difficult questions, Congress. Use the power of Congress to investigate. Give it to us straight and put action to your words honoring our fallen. The American people have faced hard facts before. It is time to do so again following the attack on our Capitol.

May we strive and succeed in learning better ways to find common ground between our political parties, truths for our nation, and kindness to our neighbors in 2021.

Pam Everhardt Bloom lives in Salisbury.