Sunday, October 28, 2018
Dear LREI Community,
Last week we saw an unprecedented campaign of package bombs mailed to specific people and institutions as an act of political violence. Many of the targets were close enough to “home” to put us all a little bit on edge. Yesterday’s murderous attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh was horrifying and its results so terribly sad. A tense and scary week and one that saw threats to essential components of our democracy – the freedom to safely worship as you choose, the right to protest, to share your political beliefs, and for all of us to have a peaceful democratic process.
I wonder what it feels like to be a child at this moment. Would I understand what is going on? Would I be able to follow and engage in the conversations of trusted adults? For others, mostly older children, it must be confusing when the adults in their lives can’t explain current events and how these times differ from times past. Are these changes lasting? Are we stuck in a time when our humanity seems to be fleeting? For all, we, as adults, can rest assured that the children are picking up on our apprehension, on our concerns and fears. These conversations, the students’ concerns, their fears, their hopes, will accompany them to school tomorrow. LREI’s skilled staff will be there to greet them, to respond, and to be guides as these conversations occur.
With Election Day just over a week away, we have to wait and see whether these crimes and tragedies will be used as a wedge or as a lever. I hope to find time to hear the views of the members of our high school elections class. Important to me to hear their thoughts on whether candidates in close races will add these events to their comments and speeches and, if so, for what purpose. The same goes for our leaders who are not up for re-election – will they see bombs and guns and threats and murder as wedges to divide us or as levers to move us to a safer, less fractured place?
Personally, I will, as I always do at these times, re-commit to my own campaign of contact with my elected representatives, and will, as I always do, pledge to be more persistent in these efforts. Adding to my list of Dos and Don’ts will be that I will lower the temperature of my personal rhetoric, shared with friends and family, to a place where the level of my actions is greater than the volume of my words as the general division and the greater and greater level of political and ideological discord is untenable and de-escalation is a responsibility we all must share.
Finally, the events of the past week make it clear that words matter. Our President’s words matter as do those of our other leaders’, elected and otherwise. Our words as parents and teachers and students and friends and neighbors matter. The power of hate-filled words can be lasting and life-changing. Hopeful and love-filled words matter, and are, when wielded skillfully and generously, our greatest tool.