Dear Editor:

Shortly after Leigh and I retired to Southport in the early years of this century I had a conversation with Ron Orchard whose roots on the island run deep, all the way to the earliest settlers on Southport. In our conversation I made some remark that we were “from away.” Ron wasted little time to inform me that he did not like that label, pointing out that we had summered on Southport for many years before moving here full time in retirement, and we loved this island community as much as he did. For Ron that “from away” label was demeaning and unacceptable. Ron’s point of view and strong words I have never forgotten.

In this highly stressful and scary time we all are experiencing it is so easy to fall into the mind set Ron so emphatically rejected — “us” versus “them.” When we buy into that sense of the other, the “from away” mentality, it is a easy to begin to reject other human beings whose needs are so similar to our own — the need to be healthy, to be happy, to be secure. Let us welcome all, work responsibly to defeat this virus, and to build a genuine community winter and summer.

Kit Sherrill

Southport