This election brought confusion, fear, depression and, for a few in our community, elation. The good news is that like any very large ship, our ship of state will take a long time to turn from the path it has been on for eight years. We should all stay involved and informed and continue to work on making this a more peaceful, inclusive and caring nation. I believe we should focus on caring for ourselves and each other. We have homeless to house, people to feed, young people to educate and support, children to care for and a host of local issues that need our attention. Long ago, I adopted the saying “think globally, act locally.” We can’t hope to answer the needs of our suffering world or heal our fractured country if we can’t even help each other.

Please don’t back away. Don’t run scared. It’s tempting to do that. Give yourself some time to heal, of course. Then jump back into trying to answer the needs we have here in our own wonderful island community. Change doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with each one of us reaching out. There are obviously people in our country who feel disenfranchised. Let’s listen to them. There are people who feel alone and afraid. Let’s offer the hand of friendship.

I’m not being a Pollyanna here. I’m old enough to have been involved in many of the upheavals our country has experienced in the last 70 plus years. I remember other times when people wanted to escape to another country or hide out with their head in the sand. But some of us organized and created new paths around the roadblocks. For those of us who remember those times, quitting is never an option.

— Emma Amiad