Exercising rights with respect for others

GRF PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

by Susan Hopewell

GRF President

For those of you who have not yet voted, please remember to exercise this important right. The Voting Pop Up Center will be near Clubhouse 3 and Veterans Plaza on Oct. 30. Additional bus service will be offered that day. Please check the LW Weekly and LW Live blasts for more information. The Orange County Ballot Drop Box is in the Amphitheater Parking Lot to drop in your mail-in ballot. Please make sure the ballot is pushed all the way through the slot.

There has been mistrust and intolerance in politics for too long, from both sides of the political aisle. It does not matter which side you sit on; if mistrust and intolerance are your foundation, you have already lost. We all have lost.

Many in this community honed their political activism during the 60s. We know the power of standing up and speaking out. Thank God, we live in a country that was founded and has moved forward on exercising these rights. To those who served, fought and died to preserve these rights, we owe you so much, and we are grateful every day for your service and sacrifice. Over the years, we seem to have lost our ability to listen to one another, not just hear, but truly listen. We need to keep an open mind to different points of view if we are ever to find our common ground. We seem to have lost our ability to speak out civilly. Again, to find common ground, we need to speak our truth and not rely on rhetoric. No matter what the outcome of this election, we all need to remember these rights come with personal responsibility.

Let us take personal responsibility and exercise these rights with respect as we move forward as a community and as a nation.