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By Eric A. Gordon
We can barely begin to count the multiple overlapping crises in our country right now. You know them all, and doubtlessly you’re dealing with some or all of them in your own life. It’s a struggle not to feel overwhelmed.
One crisis has to do with epic death, grief, and memory. How many are dying now—both from COVID-19 and from natural causes—who receive but a short graveside eulogy with only the most immediate family present, if that? Spouses, siblings, children and grandchildren, workmates, and social friends—most of them must stay home without offering a comforting embrace or shedding a tear together with the other bereaved. Maybe they’ll gather on Zoom to share a treasured memory or anecdote and raise a glass.
We have a collective grief to deal with in our land, yet from our highest tribunes all we hear is, “This will be over sooner than you know it, nothing to see here, let’s get back to work.”
A brief experiment with reconciliation
An analogy could be made to the American Civil War, in which over half a million of our people were killed either on the battlefield or in makeshift medical tents and hospitals. Our brief experiment with Reconstruction, a national effort toward...
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