To the Editor:
When people find out I live on Martha’s Vineyard, they invariably say “It must be soooo beautiful,” and I tell them it is, but that is not the key to what makes it an exceptional place to live. (We’ve been here 26 years.)
“What,” I say, “makes it exceptional is the sense of community. That when you go to the supermarket, you bump into a half-dozen people you know or might like to know. When someone dies, it’s not unusual for hundreds of people to show up for a celebration of life.”
So where was everyone, this past Saturday, when a demonstration against ICE’s abduction of a father and son was announced? Maybe 150 people were there. Five hundred people show up if someone dies. One hundred fifty show up when a father and son are kidnapped by ICE. By our government!
There’s something wrong with this picture.
I am Jewish, and many of my parent’s friends despised the Germans for not standing up while laws against Jews were enacted(1935, the Nuremberg Laws), and they began disappearing in the dead of night. We are acting like those Germans who said they could do nothing, and understandably, that’s the way we feel about what’s taking place in our country. But now there is something we can do. We can do our utmost to defend immigrants, our neighbors, from some of the terror they are experiencing.
This summer, a few of us will be trying to raise money for pro bono legal services to protect our foreign neighbors. Please be on the lookout, and please give generously. The immigrant community needs our help!
Paul Lazes
Vineyard Haven