Shows and Naughton in Clarion Ledger and Hattiesburg American

We hadn’t planned to attend the inauguration. But insurrection changed our minds.

Ronnie Shows and Hank Naughton

Guest columnists

Jan. 21, 2021

The recent deadly and insurrectionist attack on the United States Capitol was a low point in American history. Democrats and Republicans who cherish the rule of law and nonviolence were horrified. We believe the men and women who entered the Capitol Building wanted to intimidate and capture by force what was not theirs to take: our American democracy.

But as the son of a prisoner of war, captured by the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge, and an Army veteran of multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, we decided to attend the inauguration of President Joe Biden to declare that no American should be intimidated from visiting our nation’s capital. In fact, before the incident at the Capitol, neither one of us had committed to attend the inauguration.

Now that Joe Biden is president, we are both hopeful that America can move forward from the over-the-top political divisiveness that has defined the last four years. This divisiveness ended with an attack on our own U.S. Capitol, and the tragic death of a U.S. Capitol police officer who died from injuries sustained in the line of duty.

What really makes this country great is our capacity to work together and seek solutions to our problems through compromise. Think about it. All of America’s greatest achievements were accomplished through cooperation and sacrifice. Winning World War Two, re-building lower Manhattan after 9/11, developing a COVID-19 vaccine, and the nearly countless other successes that have created the greatest country in the world were achieved by working together.

Having served in political office, we have both forged friendships and working relationships across the political aisle. To assert that our efforts to secure bi-partisan achievements were somehow quaint, or a thing of the past, is both foolish and un-American. Rather, we believe the people of this country want their elected leaders to quit the endless bickering and come together find solutions.

We are hopeful that both political parties will seek to minimize the influence of their most radical components. We cannot allow either extreme to demonize other Americans, based solely on their race, creed, social standing or religion — none of these reasons make any person less worthy to enjoy the fruits of our democracy.

We leave you with these words from Joe Biden’s inaugural address, which we believe sums up perfectly the challenge laid before all Americans. We hope all people will read them and agree to abide by treating our neighbors with empathy and decency.

“For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward…Hear one another. See one another. Show respect to one another.”

Both Democrats, Shows is a Hattiesburg resident and represented Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District from 1999–2003, and Naughton, served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1995–2021.