Frank Woodruff Buckles died Sunday. He was America’s last living survivor of WWI.

Born in rural Missouri in 1901, Frank grew up on a farm, worked at a small-town bank and attended high school until he was 16. That summer, he visited five Marines and Navy recruiting offices before fooling Army recruiters in Oklahoma City into believing he was old enough to serve.

When asked by the recruiters to see a birth certificate, Frank claimed Missouri hadn’t recorded births when he was born, and that the date would be recorded in the family Bible.

Frank quickly joined the Army’s Ambulance Service because, his recruiter said, it’d be the fastest way for him to get to France.

On his journey across the Atlantic, Frank traveled on the HMS Carpathia, famous for having sailed to the rescue of those aboard the sunken Titanic not five years earlier. Some of the crew were still aboard and shared their stories of the rescue with Frank.

He served as an ambulance driver in the United Kingdom and as an escort, later, in France.

After the war, he returned to Oklahoma City to work at a post office for a measly $0.60 per hour.

While transporting cargo for steamship companies, he was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines, and held in Japanese prison camps for three-and-a-half years, during WWII.

Until Sunday, he farmed land in California and West Virginia.

Why the biographical recounting of one old man’s life?

Like so many Americans, Frank Buckles lived a commonly remarkable life that spanned more than a century and, in many ways, embodied the values and ideals so many of us hold to be true.

In light of the controversy and stalemates in legislatures across the country, it seems appropriate to use the occasion of the death of the last veteran of WWI to pause and to reflect on what we share in common. Because, lately, it seems like the number of reasons to build walls between ourselves has outweighed the number of reasons to cross bridges.

It wasn’t more than two months ago the country was astounded by just how much Congress was able to accomplish in the final few weeks of a “lame duck” session, as many in the media called it.

Fourteen Wisconsin senators fled their home state to work out of Illinois hotels more than two weeks ago because they feared the idea of returning to work with their Republican colleagues.

In what way is that American?

Standing up for your values?

Sure.

But partisan politics at a time when there’s so much work to be done leave us feeling sick.