October 8th

To the editor,

Just after noon on Thursday, Oct. 8, I wrote to ask people I knew to be active in the community for their help in delivering an essential and overdue “Never Again” type message:

“ICE is NOT Welcome Here.”

Here: Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Marble Hill, Van Cortlandt.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been using our neighborhoods to “stage” its operations, according to officials.

Sure enough, hours later on Oct. 8, ICE was back, using long guns this time.

Since then, a few more people are paying attention. Shootings get more press, but abductions are tragic enough for the people who are ripped from their lives, and for their friends and family who live with the void.

So our light needs to be shined, too, on the people who have been taken from our neighborhoods.

We still need to declare: “We Won’t Let it Happen Here (Not Again).”

And we need to really mean it. If enough of us join in, maybe we can create a new kind of “eruv” — a boundary that keeps the community physically safe while preserving our individual humanity.

For now, let’s keep it simple, and create a ring around Ewen Park. Let’s share our preferences for a date — 10/24, 10/25 or 10/31 — and ask all our neighbors to join us on the winner. 

HANNAH SHERAK

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