To the editor:

I was left deeply saddened by the opinion piece “Have we lost all our humanity and empathy?” by Georgia Garvey on May 28, where she bemoaned all the hate in our current political system.

I was even sadder when I read the article on the memorial for Sarah Milgrim, one of the two Israeli staffers killed in an ambush in Washington, D.C. Sarah in her youth was working to bridge the Israeli and Palestinian gap with “conflict dialogue for young Palestinians and Israelis.”

I resisted the urge to spew any hatred in word or thought at the person who killed Sarah and her soon-to-be husband. If I had done that, then I would have been getting in line with the assailant in the hate department.

I resolved to work harder every day to have empathy for the people committing atrocities around us, even the ones bent on tearing our democracy apart. As a former Kansas state representative in the 1980s, this pains me to no end.

Yet, these people need our love and understanding. Empathy that is. Whether they are making any effort on their part about us is irrelevant. We have a moral duty to begin the process of healing that Sarah Milgrim was focused on doing.

Taking this approach does not mean giving up on resistance to the political tide washing over us. We must continue working, though, to release the better side in ourselves and encourage the same in the people who seek to oppress us. Empathy is in. Hate is out.

Ken Grotewiel,

Lawrence