Column: We need unity in words, and in deeds

A change in presidential power is a chance for Americans to change their country for the better. The chance is as constant as the seasons and as sound the words that define the Constitution. The words are eternal because the mission — the effort to form a more perfect Union — is each generation’s duty to itself and posterity. The chance for us to come together, the chance for us to promote unity and pursue happiness is the chance for us to bind up the nation’s wounds.

The wounds range from the hurt on people’s faces to evidence of crimes to efface the people’s house; to vandalize the U.S. Capitol and threaten members of the House and Senate. The wounds are many and clear, from tent cities in our cities and states to empty buildings in our towns and streets. And yet we can heal the hurt we see.

Harder is the hurt we feel (or know others feel) but cannot see. The hurt of anxiety and depression. The hurt of fear and isolation. The hurt of shame and addiction. These hurts kill hope and cause the helpless — people who feel hopeless — to kill themselves; causing a rise in suicidal thoughts; causing a rise in the number of suicides; causing a rise in the need for resources involving suicide prevention.

If we are to prevent loss of life and save the life of our country, we must stop warring with our friends and fellow countrymen. We must stop canceling each other, blocking each other, and censoring each other. We must stop politicizing everything and personalizing every political dispute. We must stop shouting at each other, period.

Our problems are several and serious, but they are not worse than the worst hard time of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. They are not worse than the worst moments of the deadliest battle of the Civil War. They are not worse than the worst day at Pearl Harbor or the worst morning at the World Trade Center. They are not worse than some of the worst dates in the history of our country, from Dec. 7, 1941, to Sept. 11, 2001.

History allows us to put our problems in context. We can, in other words, overcome what plagues us — including the plague of COVID-19.

Science can treat our physical ailments, but only by combining the arts and sciences can we achieve a full recovery. That is to say, no vaccine can immunize us from anger, hatred, ignorance and deceit. No vaccine can replace our vocation as citizens in which the work of freedom begins with work, the hard work of protecting our rights and keeping our republic.

The work requires unity, not unanimity. We do not have to agree with one another to be free, but we must agree to unite in defense of freedom. We must make an effort to understand and to comprehend what Robert Kennedy said about Martin Luther King, Jr.: “ … to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.”

Though time may test our will to continue, we must not succumb to passion and injustice. We must exercise judgment, doing for ourselves what the government must never do to or for us: police expression. By honoring our moral rights, we strengthen our first and most important legal right — freedom of speech.

By tempering the urge to hurt those with whom we disagree, by resisting the ease by which we can inflict harm and cause others to exact bodily harm, by refusing to match vitriol with violence and violence with anarchy, our actions prove we are good citizens.

By upholding the virtues of Washington and Lincoln, by emulating the best statesmen in the history of this or any country, we ensure that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Elizabeth Rice Grossman, of Kailua, is a local philanthropist and former Wall Street financial manager.