Any pretense that this recession will be over soon should have been washed away with Friday’s unemployment report.

One in every 10 Americans capable of working is without a job this month. It’s the worst national unemployment rate in 26 years.

We shouldn’t be surprised. This has been billed as the worst recession in 80 years. To have so many people in the unemployment line now is the worst possible reminder we could have of those dark days of the 1930s. And yet, here we are.

The question now becomes, what will we do about? In the 1930s this country found a way to come together. It wasn’t easy. The battles in Washington and in state capitals across the country were as heated and intense as they are today. But, despite the clamor over a proper response, we found a way.

This recession will be over when people are working again.

However, today, we are a contentious society — an impatient society with too many shrill voices that are too willing to serve their own special interests rather than our society as a whole. The pressing question is whether we can overcome our own shortcomings to forge a consensus that will put people back to work.

The federal government will have a role in this. But, they cannot be the entire answer. Special interests rule Washington. Recession-ending action cannot be left to them alone.

States, especially states like hard-hit South Carolina, must act as well. It won’t be easy, but new alliances must be forged. New, innovative programs must be launched. The General Assembly must think outside the box.

Rules and regulations at every level must be eased temporarily to allow business to play its essential role in this aspect of the recovery. Only business can create jobs. Banks must loosen their hold on money. Investors must be persuaded by any ethical means possible to take dollars off the sidelines and put them to work so that people may be put to work as well.

There will be risks. There will be pain. But, no pain can be greater than having 16 million Americans unemployed, increasingly homeless, hungry and desperate.