“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)

Since the 1941 assault on Pearl Harbor in the U.S. Territory of Hawaii, our country has been attacked just twice- in 2001, when foreign extremists crashed their planes into New York’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field, and earlier this year, when an invisible warrior we now know as Covid 19 unleashed its invisible terror on our people.

I suspect that the shock and fear we felt on 9/11 mirrored that of the people in Oahu and those in the continental United States on December 7, 1941, although ours was more immediate and palpable due to the real-time technology of today’s media capabilities. Our country was stunned, yet we re-grouped. An attack meant to weaken our country actually served to make her stronger. We witnessed a surge in military enrollment and a wave of patriotism that unified us. People came together in a bond of commonality–U.S. citizens who took strong exception to the notion that any enemy would dare breach the security of our homeland. We learned of the bravery of the passengers who diverted one plane to that empty field, no doubt saving countless lives of those who were the intended target. We saw first responders heroically rush into danger at the crumbling towers in an attempt to save anyone who survived the attack, often at the cost of their own lives. The American flag stood tall, even above the wreckage of the towers, and the Pentagon continued to operate as the brain trust of our military capabilities. Americans will never forget 9/11 and, despite the high cost in human life, we are stronger for having endured it.

Just as our military forces would struggle to oppose an enemy from an unknown land in possession of weapons for which we were not prepared, Covid 19 has proved to be a formidable opponent. Its mysteries have made treatment and containment difficult. As feared, it has caused over 100,000 deaths and has spread like wildfire. Given no better option, our government asked us to shelter in place, maintain proper distancing, wear masks, and practice good hygiene. This required sacrifice and harm to many Americans, who lost businesses, jobs, financial security, and, for some, their sense of personal safety and mental stability. We’ve come face-to-face with an existential threat on our homeland unlike anything since the Civil War. Children and young people blessed to have grown up in a safe and secure world have learned that life is unpredictable and perhaps not nearly as free of threat as previously thought. The pandemic has tested their mettle, but it has also taught them how to handle and endure adversity.

In addition to the awful morbidity and mortality of the disease, it has led to school and workplace shutdowns, social isolation, unemployment, and stress. Social gatherings, weddings, funerals, attendance at houses of worship, and celebrations of academic graduations have halted. It’s likely that none of us has been spared. While acknowledging this, we should also look at the good that’s come from the pandemic: neighbors checking on neighbors, food pantry donations, clothing drives, and alternative ways to conduct business and worship. The list is extensive, but the effort school administrators and faculties have gone to in order to honor graduates deserves special mention. In the past, on graduation day, faculty and staff would don their academic regalia and give a few hours of their time to sit and acknowledge the graduates as they received their diplomas. This year, faculty and staff spent countless hours on special recognition of their graduates, from personalized posters to home visits to videotaped drive-through graduations. While it wasn’t like the “real thing,” creative ingenuity was used in a way no one could have imagined. This year’s graduates know how much their schools truly care about them, and memories fueled by imagination have formed that will last much longer than those of interminably long, in-person graduation ceremonies.

To be sure, we mourn the tens of thousands who have died, just as we mourned the victims of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, but those of us who have been blessed to survive are a better nation for having gone through it. The Covid 19 assault is not yet over, and another wave of “soldiers” may come ashore later this year or next, but we will ultimately win. Yes, rest assured, America will win.