I’ve been thinking a lot about the shared sacrifice that has made our country was it is, and about how, in our darkest hours as a country, we’ve risen to the moment to save our democracy in the face of terrible evil. This past Memorial Day holiday we recognized the millions of Americans who perished while serving this country in wars and conflicts across the globe, in times of great national cohesion and also of terrible national division. Serving one’s country comes with the responsibility to respond, regardless of whether one views the conflict to be just or morally complicated. I’ve never served in the military, so I can’t say that I have direct knowledge of that experience. But I greatly admire those who have, and I am thankful that we have a military that is both strong and ultimately led by a civilian who is elected by the people to make the most challenging judgments. Like everyone, I haven’t always agreed with those judgments across the decades, but I never take for granted the privilege of living in a country that is founded on democratic principles.
For the past fifteen months, we’ve been dealing with a global pandemic that has killed over 3.5 million people worldwide and almost 600,000 Americans. While we represent 4% of the world population, we have experienced 17% of the total worldwide deaths from COVID. That is despite the fact that we live in one of the wealthiest (albeit incredibly inequitable) countries in the world with a world-class (but also inequitable) health care system.
In a recent column, writer David Brooks reflected on why we have been hit disproportionately hard:
“Could today’s version of America have been able to win World War II? It hardly seems possible.
That victory required national cohesion, voluntary sacrifice for the common good and trust in institutions and each other. America’s response to Covid-19 suggests that we no longer have sufficient quantities of any of those things.
In 2020 Americans failed to socially distance and test for the coronavirus and suffered among the highest infection and death rates in the developed world. Millions decided that wearing a mask infringed their individual liberty.
This week my Times colleague Apoorva Mandavill reported that experts now believe that America will not achieve herd immunity anytime soon. Instead of being largely beaten, this disease could linger, as a more manageable threat, for generations. A major reason is that about 30 percent of the U.S. population is reluctant to get vaccinated.We’re not asking you to storm the beaches of Iwo Jima; we’re asking you to walk into a CVS.Americans have always been an individualistic people who don’t like being told what to do. But in times of crisis, they have historically still had the capacity to form what Alexis de Tocqueville called a “social body,” a coherent community capable of collective action. During World War I, for example, millions served at home and abroad to win a faraway war, responding to recruiting posters that read “I Want You” and “Americans All.”That basic sense of peoplehood, of belonging to a common enterprise with a shared destiny, is exactly what’s lacking today.”
So, on this Memorial Day, let’s acknowledge and thank those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and let’s consider their understanding of shared sacrifice and what that really means in our day-to-day lives as we emerge from this terrible period and begin to re-engage with one another anew.
In America, we can still do great things, but we need to lean on each other’s commitment to community to do so.
All the best,
John
John K. Hoey
President & CEO
The Y in Central Maryland