Originally published in Delco Times

Written by E. Teresa Touey

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., tweeted, “It’s Memorial Day weekend and you’re taking a shot at Biden while praising a dictator. This is just plain wrong.”

This U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel was responding to President Trump’s tweet on the firing off of nuclear weapons by North Korea’s President Kim happening while the president was meeting in Japan with Prime Minister Abe.

Joining Kinzinger, 19 freshmen members of the 116th Congress are veterans, among a class of 111 - 101 in the U.S. House, 10 in the U.S. Senate. They come from across the nation, parties, and services. Consider the 116th Congress: 21 percent are new members (111 of 535); 18 percent are veterans from all five services (96 of 535); 17 percent of the freshmen are veterans (19 of 111); 6 percent are women and veterans (7 of 111), a historical national and Pennsylvania milestone electing Air Force veteran, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6, of Chester County.

Among these equals, I observe: respectful communication; abiding faith in common ground across parties; working out differences with tolerance and civility;and cooperative problem-solving over divisiveness.

Do voters know civility, cooperation and progress happen in Congress or that feedback matters to their member? Mainstream, multi-media press platforms have been weighted heavily with relentless coverage of: 1) Twitter wars between the White House and Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Omar, D-Minn., and Tlaib, D-Minn., and, 2) presidential candidates courting endorsements from elected leaders with voluminous followers on social media. It gives a narrow picture of what is happening in Congress around governing.

Breaking through the sound barrier of political noise requires engaging in an old-fashioned way: by listening more than talking to voters.

In the 2018 general election, I worked with teens in Glenolden, Prospect Park and Tinicum Township in a door-to-door campaign knocking on doors of registered Independent voters. Approximately, a third of the 1,000 independents who answered were ready to vote as early as August wanting action on decreasing deaths from opioid addiction. Forty-five percent of these 1,000 voters turned up to vote in November.

In these three places, it brought two returned incumbents with a serious record of legislative and executive accomplishment aimed at solving this problem: U.S. Sen. Robert Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf. Historically, it brought three freshman prioritizing the issue: U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5, state Sen. Tim Kearney, D-26, and state Rep. David Delloso, D-162.

These neighbors translated their insight and wisdom to the ballot box. Their behavior resonated with what Matt Fitzgerald and his wife Nataki, have had included on the cover of his book, “Life is A Marathon.”

“For both of them, the marathon is an apt metaphor for living with her seriously debilitating bipolar disorder, a different but not-so-different sort of wall that at times confronts them with the starkest of choices: Give up or endure.”Brain disease patients can be co-morbid, having more than one serious brain disease at once. Concurrent challenges exist to reducing military suicide, which stands at 22 a day, to decreasing deaths from opioid addiction, to learning science’s answers to addiction, Alzheimer’s, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, panic – easier to study now with pet scans, and to lifting the stigma for brain patients to ask and get care.

This year Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif, started For Country Caucus. Bacon, a retired Air Force Brigadier General, writing in the Washington Examiner, said, “We are a group of 20 bipartisan veterans in Congress that know we must work together to make progress for our country.” Bacon, Houlahan, who joined the caucus as co-vice chair, and other members support legislation promoting collaboration among experts to safely accelerate FDA-approved drug therapies and diagnostic tools for brain disease patients, especially TBI, PTSD, and early onset dementia. Bacon was asked to co-chair the congressional task force on TBI with founder Rep. Bill Pascarell, D-N.J. Scanlon is one of 70-plus members.

At Memorial Day ceremonies with my neighbor, Robert J. Barr, an Army veteran running for Glenolden Borough Council, we gathered with the American Legion. Interboro High School band played taps. My tears flowed easily remembering the 2014 funeral of my uncle, William C. Lang, cancer-battler, medal-honored U.S. Army Vietnam veteran, West Catholic alum.

Our personal losses mean shared sacrifice. Just three years ago, I watched Joe and Jill Biden at Joint Force Headquarters Delaware National Guard Reserve Center dedicate its new building to Major Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III where he served. Weeks earlier, I watched them present event medals to Invictus Games athletes from 15 nations in Orlando. Adaptive sports provide highly effective tools for physical and mental recovery.

Shared sacrifice. Lest we forget.