We are all human, stop building walls

I dream of the day when humans will stop building walls and instead choose to sit beside their neighbors. A white man is just as suspicious as a black man, and a Muslim is born just as innocent as a Jew. I do not want to see a country that builds walls to keep out men with foreign tongues. Only fools believe that hate can only be imported and not grown between the gaps in our societal fences.

I don’t know where you’re from, but I’m from a quiet neighborhood that isn’t known for its violence. Twice a year, my grandfather’s cousin and her husband, both native Pittsburghers, frequent our holiday table. They’re not religious, but they belong to the Tree of Life synagogue.

They often talk about family, and most importantly, my cousin’s mother-in-law. I can’t remember anything specific about her, but I do remember the many times her grandchildren recounted something they found particularly endearing about her through fits of laughter. She was shot on Oct. 27. A sharp, 97-year-old lady sitting in her shul was killed alongside her fellow Jews.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe once said, “Only for someone else’s misfortune that is out of your reach can you cry, but for your own tragedy you can’t cry, you have to do something.”

I know how easy it is to prejudge others or to get lost in our own lives, while forgetting to have empathy for those around us. But I’m asking, on behalf of my neighborhood, to do something by making a change. It can be as simple as the next time you see someone muttering on the sidewalk to not stare at them in horror or fear. I am asking that we all build bridges and not walls.

People, no matter the color of their skin, whom they love, their brain biochemistry, the country they once called home, or whomever they perceive God to be, are all humans. They’re all loved by someone and needed by someone. To someone they are not just anyone, but they are everyone and everything. TZIPPORAH OSTER

Squirrel Hill