I attended Conway Town Meeting on May 14. I wanted to experience firsthand this rare form of direct democracy. Today, Conway is my home, my life, and my big love. However, I was not born in the area. In fact, I was not born in this country. I am an immigrant. I live here by choice and my choice was based on my beliefs and on my faith — my faith in the values of the United States, my faith in the mentality of the town I have grown to love so much.

I was an immigrant not only in the states, but in three different countries. In the country where I was born, I used to have family, job, property. I sacrificed all of it and, what is more important, I risked my life and the life of my 8-year-old son, when I decided to cross several borders with him illegally.

I took this risk because what I did not have were civil liberties, including freedom of speech. Later, I reached the destination where we all are supposed to have those civil liberties, for which I risked my life. Thus, in the last year or so, when people in my beloved Conway started arguing whether they should or should not vote on the Safe Community Bylaw, it was very hard for me to understand why members of a society that enjoys freedom of speech would give up their right to take a stand on any issue. In other countries, people bleed for that right. I thought that a friendship that does not allow argument is no true friendship, and that a community where neighbors cannot differ in their opinions is not a healthy community. Isn’t the right to respectfully disagree one of the big advantages of democracy?

I myself refuse to accept the idea that if I speak my mind and defend a point opposite to that of my neighbor, our neighborly relations would suffer. I also refuse to accept the argument that in order to be united and survive future threats, we need to avoid any arguments. Fear of the future cannot justify abandoning our responsibility for the present.

Therefore, I did take a stand at the Town Meeting, and I want to appeal to all who read my words in writing — today, here and now. Do not let a mother fear for the life of her child. Do not let a child fear for the life of its mother or its father. Do not call a human being who is seeking a better life, criminal. Do not let a human being fear imprisonment because they pursue happiness.

I was that human being. I was that mother. I have been in a refugee camp. I have been on the street. I have been hungry. I survived and was able to write and to teach young Americans independent thinking, including in political moral and social philosophy. The little boy who crossed the borders with me, my younger son, has now dedicated his life to restoring peace in post-war regions and to counterterrorism, and he works hard to make you, the United States, and many other countries safe. But we survived, and we were able to do all this only thanks to those of you who helped us, who protected us, who supported us, who did not betray our hopes, and who did not take away our right to pursue happiness.

I am asking: If you have to choose between the risk to deprive a decent person of their freedom, of their hopes, and of their chances or to take a risk that among all those decent people there might be a few twisted minds, a few criminals, a few thieves — if you have to choose between the two, what would you choose? I certainly would take the second risk — for in my mind any single human life deserves a chance.

We can certainly find as many twisted minds among any group of citizens as among any group of immigrants. As to our fears, I believe that what we should fear in the first place is losing our humanity. There have been a number of regimes in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere that tried this in the last century. Do not let Conway, do not let the United States of America, follow in their steps.

To me, the issue Conway had was not whether it was necessary to discuss the topic of safe communities right now or not. The issue was what attitude the town we live in will represent, if and when the question does come up.

Dr. Judith Wermuth-Atkinson is an author and a specialist in world literature. She is the author of a socio-political memoir titled “Closer to the Far-Away” (Näher an die Ferne. Munich: 1999) focusing on the society of a communist country, her illegal escape through the Iron Curtain, her work with refugees from the war zone during the 1990s Balkan wars, and her immigration experience in different countries.