Make gentle the life of this world: pondering the somber mood and political upheaval in our nation.

• Author: Gochnour, Natalie
• Position: Economic Insight - Column

My husband and I ride our bikes together along the Jordan River Parkway several times a week. We love cycling because you see and feel things in a different way. The Wasatch Range, sunsets, wildlife and other details feel closer and more real. There is a depth of feeling that you just can't find when you are behind a windshield or on a city street.

For the past several months, this richness of feeling has been upended by the constant presence of flags flying at half-staff in neighboring yards and businesses. Our moods turn somber as we discuss the latest mass shooting, police killing or terrorist event.

We were both born in the 1960s and have faint, but vivid memories of the monumental social and political events that rocked our country during that decade. On a recent bike ride my husband said to me, "America feels like Vietnam again." That was a sobering thought.

A message for turbulent times

I was young at the time of Vietnam, but I do remember Walter Cronkite reporting the day's body count as images of black bags were loaded off military transport planes. I remember my mother's anxious eyes as my brother was drafted into the army and then assigned a tour of duty. And I remember when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and how it impacted the atmosphere in our home. These were difficult times and there's a lesson for us today.

At the time of King's death, Robert F. Kennedy delivered a speech that put words to this lesson. Those of you who are familiar with the story will recall that Kennedy was a candidate for president and making a campaign stop in Indianapolis. Shortly after getting off the plane, he was informed of King's death and had the awful task of delivering the news to the waiting crowd. In what can only be described as an extraordinary eulogy, Kennedy spoke from the heart about King's life and the future of our country.

He said, "In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of nation we are and what direction [do] we want to move in." He said we can move in the direction of bitterness, hatred, revenge and greater polarization, or we can make an effort as King did to "... understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love."

Later in the same spontaneous speech Kennedy...