Are you willing to do what it takes to heal America?

President-elect Joe Biden and others are understandably talking about the need to “heal our country.” Bitter divisiveness following a national election is not new in America, but this time it’s different. Half of us simply cannot comprehend how the other half voted for the presidential candidate that they did. Our divisions go far beyond disagreements over policy, principle and self-interest; they feel like tribal warfare. The unsettling behavior of President Trump and his refusal to accept the election’s outcome amplifies these feelings.

A unifying leader will help, but healing our country is really up to the American people.  Combatting the pandemic with competence and compassion, mourning those who have died and caring for those with long-term COVID-19 illness are urgent imperatives, as is rebuilding our economy. But these will not heal what divides us. Addressing climate change, racial injustice, rebalancing capitalism and reforming America’s politics are essential, but they won’t heal us either.

To heal America, we must breathe life into the better angels of our nature. We have to act upon Abraham Lincoln’s admonition that “we must not be enemies.” Toxic levels of exclusivity and intolerance that have crept into our communities are part of what ails us. We must engage in collective soul-searching to create the opportunity for change. 

Religious, spiritual and philosophical leaders are essential to re-grounding us in the importance of trust, fairness and respect for one another. They can help us refresh our common agreement about what matters most in our lives, our interdependence and mutuality. Health care workers also can lead us in this re-grounding. Their profession uniquely enables them to see people through the lenses of both science and our humanity. They bear witness to the determinants of health and well-being that we and our society have created. Their compassion during the pandemic has drawn our attention, and we need them to expand their influence and leadership.

To heal America, we must have broad agreement on facts, and understand real uncertainties and risks. Our education as citizens, and our constructive engagement with one another, requires this.  Meaningful reform of our societal systems is not possible without it. Misuse of information technologies — specifically, the perverse influences of social media — is where we should begin. Google, Twitter, Facebook and other internet giants are not free services; they harvest our attention and information about our preferences and sell both to advertisers. Their size and business models have combined to play to our weaknesses. Virtual communities that thrive on the creation of “alternative facts” are just one of the undesirable consequences. No entity should be allowed to wield so much power and influence in the daily lives of so many people.   

To heal America, “We, the People” have to take more personally the serious work of citizenship.  A recommitment to tolerance for our differences, and an understanding of the roles and limitations of both government and the private sector, are necessary. A respect for the balanced role of personal and shared responsibilities is needed. If we continue to assert that preferences are rights, and believe we should use the courts to sit in judgment of our neighbor’s choices simply because they are not consistent with our values, we will not heal. 

If we only superficially understand concepts such as capitalism and socialism, democracy and a republic, we will be manipulated by those who can benefit from our ignorance. They will exploit the divisions we enable them to create. If we do not engage and listen with civility and humility to our fellow citizens with whom we disagree, then we cannot build consensus nor forge compromise. If we don’t decide to work harder at being better citizens, we cannot live together.

To heal America, we need to abandon the battlefield of the ongoing culture war and stop following its self-appointed generals. Urban, rural, suburban, immigrant, white, Black, Latinx, college-educated, working class, wealthy, poor, Republican, Democrat — we all must decide if the membership we call “citizenship” means more than being a member of one of these groups.  For us to heal, we must believe we are Americans all, Americans first, and act like it.

This healing will not be easy. It will take time that we likely don’t have, efforts that we never have made, and methods that many of us have not tried. Nonetheless, it is the essential prerequisite to our really moving forward as a nation. 

I believe we can do this if enough Americans commit to unprecedented, transformational change.  Unifying leaders cannot do it for us, but they can point the way, call us to action, and facilitate our organizing around hugely important tasks. I hope that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are such leaders, and that amid all that commands their time and attention, they call us to this difficult effort of healing. I hope, too, that we Americans are up to the task.

John J. Grossenbacher retired in 2003 as U.S. Navy vice admiral and commander of the U.S. Naval Submarine Forces, following a 33-year naval career. He directed the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory for 10 years, overseeing scientific and engineering research in nuclear and other energy resources, the environment and homeland security.