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Mike Starace's avatar

This is not only the best Steady letter I've read, but is unquestioningly the best I've read anywhere about the pandemic and its effect on our country.

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Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg's avatar

As the artist who created the white flag installation (“In America: Remember”) on the National Mall, I thank you for having an image of my art accompany your brilliantly written article.

My white flags were a plea for humanity. In their astonishing beauty, the flags represented something so profoundly horrifying. That incongruence was meant to give our nation a moment of pause. En masse, the flags physically rendered understandable an incomprehensible number. Individually, the flags acknowledged personal, devastating loss as people from across the nation traveled to Washington, DC to dedicate flags—with names and stories—for loved ones lost. Amidst those fluttering flags, individuals no longer felt alone in their grief. Strangers comforted strangers. That gives me hope.

We must create more spaces, more opportunities to humanize those who are “other” and to normalize respect for their dignity. Art can play an important role: when words fall on unlistening ears, art can slide in under the door, filter gently in through the air vents, and unlock our echo chambers from the inside.

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