Fewer than two years after the memory-searing, world-changing terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, David Paine and Jay Winuk founded MyGoodDeed.org with the express purpose of transforming 9/11 into a national day of service in honor of the victims, volunteers, and rescue and recovery workers of Ground Zero.

A visit to this website will allow you to plug in your zip code and discover a wide range of opportunities for public service. It’s a worthy idea that deserves more attention and support.

A few weeks ago, the founders added a new twist. They wrote Senators McCain and Obama asking them to honor the anniversary of the attacks by suspending active campaigning. In a significant act of statesmanship, consistent with the unifying messages both candidates have sometimes advocated, they agreed.

The agreement preceded the recent escalation of nastiness and warlike rhetoric on both sides, so the truce couldn’t have come at a better time. The candidates and the nation need a pause from a campaign that seems to be spinning out of control, getting uglier, meaner, and more divisive by the day.

So today, with no speeches and hopefully no attempt to gain political advantage, the two candidates will walk together down a ramp into the pit where the World Trade Center towers once stood and lay a wreath at Ground Zero. Later, they will jointly appear at a televised forum on civic engagement, a topic they agree on.

It’s a fitting tribute to this solemn day.

An even greater tribute, and a monumental act of public service, would be a promise by these two good men who love their country to raise the campaign to a higher level and keep it there.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.