My birthday wish

To the Editor,

On January 27, I became a year older, no wiser than before.

There is one thing I would like for my birthday: for everyone to please stop calling each other names, and to please stop calling their political opponents names. Expressing ourselves in these highly turbulent and emotional times is hard, and it is emotional. I also understand that we need unity now, and calling people names — especially people like former president Donald Trump, Senator Bernie Sanders, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton — is not going to help.

I would also like to ask for prayers for the people affected by the violence in Washington, D.C. — but also for the people who committed the acts of violence. Any act of violence, no matter what the political motivation may be, is something we should avoid. A lot of acts of violence have been committed in the past year. All hurt.

Finally, I would like to ask everyone to please consider reaching out to someone whose political views are diametrically opposed to theirs. I am trying to do the same. It is harder than it seems, especially because of emotions and the words that get in the way. But we need to do it, now.

I am struggling with these endeavors and many more, and failing at them, but I think it’s important to try. Former president Trump, former secretary Clinton, and all Americans are still part of our community, still, as John Donne wrote, “a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

They still matter.

Parisa Zangeneh
Galway, Ireland (formerly of Wallingford)