Former rivals forward community peace with a picnic

Lisa Emery and Sean Strub together greeted about 100 people at a Unity in the CommUNITY picnic in Ann Street Park last weekend. The former rival candidates to be Milford mayor had begun the group in December after the mayoral race had intensified locally the political polarization that presidential politics had ignited nationally.

“Old friends and neighbors stopped speaking to each other,” Emery said, explaining, months earlier, the dismay that had prompted her to work with Strub on bridge building, though her politics had not changed.

“Donald Trump is my president,” she said.

But politics were purposely not among conversation topics at this picnic organized to encourage peace. Hotdogs were plentiful, both vegan and meat. Unity member Paula Luckring noted that her husband had made heart cookies. A Music in the Park concert would begin a couple of hours after the picnic started, and musicians played during the picnic too, feuling picnic festivity.

“Triversity co-hosted the concert with Dan Engvaldsen, Love & Moon, and host Belle Pepper. The event highlighted community support for our LGBTQ+ friends, neighbors, and family,” said Mike Zimmerman, Music in the Park organizer. “We were excited when Unity in the CommUNITY decided to host their picnic the same day as our concert, with their intention to work together for Milford’s betterment.”

Strub and Emery took the stage together to greet guests.

“After the election, Lisa and I got a group together, not to change minds, but for a center of gravity and civil discourse, agreeing to disagree,” Strub said to the crowd. “In a pluralistic society, you can have different views without demonizing each other. We started with half a dozen people and the group grew.”

“We all got to know each other as neighbors and people,” said Emery. “There were no heated discussions.”

“Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know,” Strub suggested.

The group began with local clergy in December, and an assortment of other people gradually joined. Makeup of the group shifted with new people coming in, as others left. About a dozen Unity members attended the picnic.

Paula Luckring had come to Milford with her husband in 2019, from Philadelphia, where she had been doing marketing for big technology companies, such as Oracle.

“This was a group you throw in a room, and it comes together and gels,” she said. “We had to decide whether to make guidelines for engagement. Yes it was needed. We put into words what we were doing, rules for engagement and rules for behavior.”

Not new to Milford in the group was Nancy Pinchot, helping with the picnic that day. Her husband Peter’s family had been in Milford for many generations, including Gifford Pinchot, who had been governor and started the U.S. Forest Service.

“I wanted to reduce tensions in the community,” she said.

Sitting among the picknickers was Connie Nichols, of Milford Borough. She had read about the picnic and came with her husband Rick.

“It was tense. There was animosity,” she said of the community’s lingering political divisions. “People said things that weren’t nice, but we’re all people with feelings.”

Also picnicking was Adriane Wendell, who had been a Milford Borough Council member for several years. “I’m glad the group turned into more than conversations,” she said. Unity had met monthly for several months before deciding what actions to take.

Also among the crowd was David Heim, chair of the Milford Borough Zoning Board of Appeals, with his wife Nancy.

“This gets people together who want to get along,” he said.