They both are trying to show how people come together to pay tribute to the men who died while in war. The photo shows tribute while the poem is showing the reader the emotions of a visitor.
Quindlen links the conclusion to the introduction of her essay with the words "like many improbable ideas, when it works, it's a wonder", which is very close to her claim in the overall text, "America is an Improbable idea", it isn't supposed to work but it does despite all of the differences, specifically racial or ethnic, within it.
A word used to mean 'before'.
