Is it too late to know thy neighbor?

To the editor,

I’m feeling overwhelmed and afraid, and I know I’m not alone in this. I also know that I am not alone at all. I know my Riverdale community is filled with good, decent people who care about doing the right thing and who love this country and cherish our constitution. Some of us have always voted Democrat, some have always voted Republican, and some have changed one way or the other over the years for various reasons.

I’m a Democrat. My dad was a Democrat, as was his Papa. But my dad’s cousin, who lived down the street, and figured in every one of the stories Dad told us about his childhood, voted Republican when he grew up. We weren’t horrified; It made sense. Dad was a musician, who came east to study in New York City. His cousin stayed in the Midwest and became a successful insurance salesman. They had different personalities and it seemed to make intuitive sense that they experienced the world in different ways and had different political leanings. But that had nothing to do with their love for each other, not that they would have called it that. Each knew the other was an absolutely decent, caring man. Both worked hard, both were devoted to their families. And each knew the other had a deep appreciation of, and respect for, this country and its principles and institutions. They voted differently, but there was never any doubt that each was voting for what he believed was best for the country.

I hear about choices being made by Republican politicians and by Republican voters “out there” in the rest of the country. I am horrified. I am also confused. My husband and I recently had a lovely, old-fashioned chat with a neighbor. We knocked on her door with a simple question and she spontaneously invited us in. And then on our way out, I saw the picture of President Donald Trump on the inside of her front door. I don’t believe she is a person who thinks it’s okay to shoot a man in the back ten times when he’s already disarmed and down on the ground, or to shoot a woman in the face, or to put a 5- year-old child in detention thousands of miles away from his school and his mother. I’m not sure what she thinks Democrats believe, or want to do. But whatever it is, if it’s awful, I hope she doesn’t believe that of me.

It just feels like my neighbors are good, decent people. I would feel so much safer if we could unite around our love of our country, around caring for all of our neighbors, and around the defense of the brilliantly articulated principles of our Bill of Rights. Is there any way we can still do that?

If anyone is interested in getting a group together to talk about this, I’d love to hear from you. Please reach out to me at shapiro.emily@gmail.com.

EMILY SHAPIRO