For the first time…
As a Jew, I honestly have been processing my own response to the tragedy in Pittsburgh and I have been unsure how to react or what to say and do.
This week, I worked at the JFS Food Pantry at the Jewish Community Campus, a volunteer position that I’ve been doing for several years. For the first time ever (including after the shootings several years ago), I felt some insecurity while waiting out front for shoppers to drive up to load their cars. For the first time, I saw the armed security guards that walk the building and drive the campus grounds in a different light. For the first time, I saw the groups of children in the playground (Jewish and non-Jewish) from the day care program and worried. For the first time, I saw the kids from the Hebrew day school and worried. What’s become of our country, our world, our lives?
I see a president who enables racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and worse. I see a complicit Congress full of Republican hypocrites afraid to call out the overt racism, etc., that has become a daily occurrence.
I’m worried. I’m not sure what to do other than vote and worst case, to leave.
Jeffrey Roitman
Overland Park, Kansas
