By Kimberly Mayer, Journal contributor.

We were in San Diego crossing the bridge over the bay to Coronado Island when nearly halfway across, all traffic came to a stop. Police car after police car squeezed through the lanes — perhaps a dozen cruisers and an ambulance. Except for the short bursts to alert us they were coming through, there were no sirens whatsoever. Just stillness, silence and no explanation for I-don’t-know-how-long. All of us motorists on the bridge on a bright and beautiful day, windows down, patiently not moving. Later we learned that someone had attempted suicide at the apex of the gently climbing bridge.

One week later, back on San Juan Island, a sailing vessel hit rocks in Cattle Pass and began taking on water and breaking up. The mayday call came in the night and a U.S Coast Guard helicopter out of Port Angeles, a U.S. Coast Guard boat out of Bellingham and San Juan Fire Department’s fireboat as well as sheriff boats all responded to try to find and rescue two boaters in the cold, northern water.

In the same week, a trial was getting underway. To participate in jury selection is to learn the first thing about due process. I was there for the selection process and the trial, and without saying anything about the case, the process is what impressed me. The protocol of the court, procedures that insist upon civility, the care and consideration of ordinary citizens serving as jury.

In the end, the individual was talked down off the Coronado Bridge. One boater near San Juan Island was pulled from the water in time, the other unfortunately was not. In the court matter, the jury deliberation for days.

Three events in the period of three weeks: the incident on the bridge, the accident at sea, and the trial in the courtroom, and they all tie together through empathy and civility. This is what we have and mustn’t lose. One end of society is working, while the other end — at the highest level in our current administration — is doing everything to derail it. Included in their drastic reductions and defunding are federal agencies that have everything to do with our quality of life, from Health and Human Services to the Environmental Protection Agency.

And as for their assault on the press, we all know what that means.