Embrace our differences
i have only written several letters to the editor. Generally it has been when something has weighed heavily on my heart or in recognition of an accomplishment or generous deed. Unfortunately, this letter is the former rather than the latter.
I am a daughter of first-generation Americans – fiercely proud of their heritage but completely open to experiencing the cultural differences surrounding them. My father, along with many of my uncles, fought in service of our country. One gave his life. They fought and died to protect our right to live in peace in a country known as “The Melting Pot.”
I grew up embracing these differences, not fearing them. Just because someone looks, acts or thinks differently does not make them bad or dangerous. It just makes them different. If you shut yourself off from anyone with ideas unlike your own, you are missing out on so much in life. You are living in a walled fortress where free-thinking is frowned upon if not forbidden. Suspicion, hatred and fear grow inside that fortress. Belief that anyone on the outside must be the enemy takes root and grows.
My father and uncles did not fight for the kind of world where hatred and fear are the “norm.” They saw firsthand what that kind of hatred could do and how easily it could take hold. We need to embrace our differences. We need to learn from them, because only then will we see that despite or even because of our differences, we are the same.
Human beings who deserve the right to live together in peace and harmony, not hatred and fear.聽
Rosemary Smith
Lemont Furnace