Of the businesses that evince an attachment to personal identity, the art of marking the existence of someone who has passed is one of the most profound. Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama offered a powerful reminder of this when he recalled the impact of seeing a photo of a symbol carved on a fallen soldier's grave:

Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards—Purple Heart, Bronze Star—showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could go serve his country, and he gave his life.

Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

Of the many things I've read on the interplay of symbol, community and personal identity, the work of Josiah Royce is particularly relevant to Powell's core point. However much loyalty to distinguishing values may divide groups, it also has the potential to bring groups together through mutual respect. Not because the people shed their differences for the least common denominator, but rather, because their loyalty toward their own values can lead to respect the loyalty evident in those with whom they disagree. This loyalty to loyalty has tremendous unifying potential within a democratic system, as it provides a practical ideal through which the many can become one without having to jettison their personal allegiances.