The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C. Photo by James Wernicke
BY JAMES WERNICKE
Los Alamos
Last week, I found myself in Washington, D.C. attending a national security conference. After a long day of discussions on the challenges facing our country, I spent the evening wandering the National Mall alone.
At the Lincoln Memorial, I stood before those words etched in stone reminding me of “the great task remaining before us—that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Those words still call us to place our shared humanity above division.
At the Washington Monument, I pondered the courage and sacrifice it took to create this nation, and what our founding father would think of us today? Would he see a country where “union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other”?
When I approached the Capitol and the White House, the fencing and security lighting surrounding them told their own story. They were a reminder of the distance and fear that can grow between the people and their government.
We are living in a time of heightened conflict, where mass news outlets and social media amplify outrage, rewarding division rather than dialogue. We cannot allow algorithms to dictate our emotions and reduce one another to adversaries because of our differences. We have a duty to this “insoluble union” to resist being pulled into echo chambers of anger and suspicion.
I ask you as neighbors and citizens to be “dedicated here to the unfinished work” of unity. Peace is not passive. It is the active work of listening, fostering respect, and investing in one another’s wellbeing. Let’s define ourselves by “that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States, which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and policies, to make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity, and, in some instances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community.”
https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/gettysburgaddress.htm
https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw2.024/?sp=236&st=text
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-11404