There it was. That urge to compare a terrible now with no end in sight, to a horrible then that resulted in victory.

"I think this is our Dunkirk moment as a country. Now is the time to step up and help," said Tufts University president Anthony Monaco in a news story on the coronavirus, equating the challenges of the current moment to the epic World War II rescue of Allied soldiers trapped on the French coast by British civilians with boats.

Greatest Generation, meet the latest generations. The United States is in the grips of a global pandemic unlike anything ever experienced by baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials, Gen Z, or whatever you prefer to call the descendants of the G.I. Joes and Rosie the Riveters who fought, each in their own way, to save democracy and preserve freedom.

There have been other shared trials and tragedies — from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the war on terror — that have tested the ability of Americans to come together for a common cause.

Sometimes we've been deeply divided as a country in a crisis, as was the case during the Vietnam War. Sometimes we've never felt closer, as happened after 9/11 turned us all into one family grieving heartbreaking loss.