To the Editor:
If there is one thing I’m sure we can all agree on these days, it’s that we are a nation politically divided, from Washington all the way down to our own charming Milford. It is a problem and culpability doesn’t belong solely to any one person or group. If we are honest with ourselves, many if not all of us could probably admit to engaging in the rancor at some level, even indirectly. The firehose of content and information we are all hit with daily pretty much makes complicity assured unless you want to go live in a cave.
It can seem overwhelming at times, the current scale of the matter can make you feel powerless. But here and now is where we can decide the community we want. Each of us can decide our role going forward. What I know is true is this, not one person, no matter their ideology, wakes up thinking that their beliefs and values are the problem. We will inevitably not agree on some things, but we’d do well to remember that we are all acting in good faith.
Of course there are exceptions, extremists on both sides who are lost. But they are the minority. What most of us want is the same, safety and security for our family, peace and prosperity. When we see someone with opposing views we must embrace the fact that that person is more than those views. Differing political ideas has always been here and always will be. But the ideas belong to the individual along with the rest of who they are, it is in losing sight of this and seeing everyone as only “on my side” or “the wrong side” that we lose respect, patience and tolerance. We need to get the hell off Facebook and reconnect, find the common ground that is assuredly there.
Now everybody already has decided who they will vote for, and a million letters to editor won’t change any minds. But if we don’t want to be just another microcosm of tense national politics I believe we need to pick leaders who don’t stoke the flames of divisiveness that we see everywhere. We need to vote for proven records of leadership, vision, results and doing right by our town.
This is Milford, damn it, we can be an example.
Granger Greenbaum
Milford