When the answer became shutdowns, school closings, all kinds of impacts on business, a stock market meltdown, nearly ruinous government spending, limitations on funerals and religious services, required masking, and a race for a vaccine, many wondered whether the cure might be worse than the disease. This past July, a national civic organization called Braver Angels (of which I am a board member) held a convention at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. The goal was to reduce political polarization and to help Americans remain in contact with each other as citizens.