As of Monday afternoon, 19 senators and eight representatives – including the entire Maine delegation – have indicated they support a recent proposal for members of both parties to sit together during President Obama’s State of the Union address Jan. 25.

More will likely have joined the effort by the time you read this.

The obvious impetus for the move is the partisan acrimony that has marred national efforts to mourn the victims of the Jan. 9 shootings in Tucson. Six people, including a federal judge, were killed, and 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, were wounded.

Since both senators and representatives are invited, there are no reserved seats in the House chamber for the president’s speech. In the past, members of both parties have tended to sit close to their party colleagues, although there have always been exceptions.

The recent effort seeks to create an intentional mixing, in which members of one party would seek out members of the other. The hope is to avoid the symbol of congressional division created when the president’s party applauds on one side during the speech while the opposing party remains silent on the other side.

Still, while it may spread the ones applauding around the floor, it would seem unlikely that many Republicans would applaud much of what Obama has to say, any more than Democrats applauded much of what George W. Bush said during his speeches to Congress.

But even if they don’t, mixing up the seating would send a strong message to the country and to others around the globe that we remain one nation despite our internal disagreements.

For that reason alone, members of Congress on both sides should make a little extra effort to find a friend who normally sits on the other side of the aisle and make him or her a seatmate this one time.