In recent months, I have been pleased to see my name mentioned in some letters to the editor, on both sides of issues, and in person, when someone recognizes me as a correspondent. I really do not need a massage to my ego. What is important to me is the knowledge that people have felt involved enough to express opinions.
I write because I want to provide information and perhaps persuade. Social issues are fraught with emotion, and sometimes reflect that more knowledge and critical thinking are required.
As human beings, many of us fear change. We have been used to certain ideas for much of our lives, and it is very disquieting to notice that the world is changing. It is easier to listen to the voices that resist change, in spite of evidence that if we don’t accept change, it will happen anyway.
Rather than trying to entertain the possibility that it will ultimately mean improvement or avert disaster, we waste our time, our emotions and our activities in trying to maintain the status quo. I see too much of this. All of us are blessed with imaginations; we can enhance them by accepting new information. We can, I hope, abandon old ways of dealing with problems. We can become more skeptical, more questioning of authority figures. We owe it to ourselves and our children to ask more questions, to tolerate sometimes disturbing ideas.
Above all, as a progressive, I believe that we should try to make things better for the earth and its inhabitants. I strongly believe that education is pivotal and essential.
I hope that we will, as citizens of the world, and part of what is, for the present at least, its most powerful and influential nation, concentrate on improving our own educational system.
It unfortunately, has fallen far below that of other industrialized nations. Perhaps tolerance, empathy and patience will follow.
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
