I am 72 years old and I’ve lived in Greenfield the vast majority of my life. I truly love this community. It has been terrific to me, my wife, Mary, and our two sons, Simon and Parker. Lucky for me, I have learned much over the years about citizenship, racism, social equity and justice.
Unfortunately, these issues that are important to me are becoming meaningless words. We (our country) appear to enjoy living with racism as it has been way too prominent in our country. We also don’t appear to enjoy social equity, justice, or citizenship as it should apply to each and everyone we know, see and speak to.
Being involved as a volunteer at Greenfield Community College has taught me so much that I did not quite understand in the realm of racism, justice and social equity. I now realize that I, too, am racist. I work diligently on this daily. I have no idea what it means to be a person of color. How can I — being white and never having to be pointed at, or ridiculed, or feared? Neither of my parents would ever tolerate racist attitudes or behavior, and I am thankful for that. Being a Jew in Greenfield has not always been easy but because I am white, I never had the experiences that my friends of color had. I went through much of my life being socially ignorant of the plight of so many others in our country. I will never be perfect, but I am learning as best I can.
The more I learn and understand these issues, the more mad I become, especially with the recent news. We have learned in this country to be in fear of anyone who looks different, who acts or speaks differently. These learned behaviors need to be re-learned, but I do not have much faith that it will be accomplished in my lifetime. Unconsciously or consciously, these behaviors affect people of color, folks who are poor, people who are disabled, and so many others. I am guilty of this, too, but I do my best to work on it daily.
A major disappointment to me is our political farce. One of my dreams during this time of pandemic was that perhaps this would be the time that America would unify, and show the world why we are Americans. After two months, I laughed at myself. This is an election year and it looks like we are back to political rhetoric from all of our leaders. The system is very broken and it will not change as it is entrenched. Again, it is an election year and getting re-elected matters more than everything. Ask any elected official what they think of term limits — you already know the answer.
I have always stated that we learn more from those we disagree with than those with whom we agree. My point is that we all need to have more conversations, to understand each other better, and to understand our own feelings. We need to engage with folks of color, those who are poor, those who are different from us to really have any meaningful insight about their lives. We need to let go of our fears. Each of us needs to work on becoming better daily, to concern ourselves with equity, and to doing what we can to be better Americans.
I have said enough and I am mad about our current events involving our citizens in the United States of America. I ask myself and I ask you: What are you going to do about it? Be part of the problem or part of the solution, your choice?
Robert S. Cohn is a resident of Greenfield.