Sen. Mark Udall’s call for Congress to sit together at the State of the Union

Symbols do matter. Appearances do matter. TV visuals certainly do matter.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) is urging his colleagues to sign a letter to the
leadership of the House and Senate calling for members to sit together, not
divided by party, for this year’s State of the Union speech.
 
More and more, these spectacles of one party sitting, one party clapping; one
party cheering, the other stone-silent; one party rising for a standing
ovation, the other anchored to their seats, have not exactly been “sitting”
well with the American people.
 
The message being sent is one of paralysis, incivility, gridlock. And, most of
all, anger.
 
No one is naïve here but, after all, why should members not sit where they
would like? Why not sit together in state delegations, for example? Or senators
mixed on one side and House members mixed on another?
 
Why look like the Crips and the Bloods — glaring across the aisle?
 
What an important gesture it would be to make that change; what an important
message it would send to the American people about our country and our Congress.
 
Mark Udall is a close friend of Gabby Giffords. His father, the distinguished
statesman Mo Udall, represented that Tucson district in Congress with great
distinction.
 
It is entirely fitting and proper that Congress come together and set a new
tone and a new precedent in her honor. An idea whose time has come. Truly.