Letters-to-the-Editor & Commentary

Choose Consensus

Published 2 years ago2y ago • Bookmarks: 58

August 18, 2022

To my Fellow Voters,

Again our voting obligation is upon us. It presents us with the opportunity to engage with our leaders and each other on issues that confront us directly and indirectly and we have to make key decisions about the direction we are going as a community and as a nation. Sometimes those choices have international consequences.

There is no doubt that we have become a polarized country. The politics of division, of thoughtless partisanship far outweighs the concerns of every individual’s rights or responsibility to build a more just union. Our inability to listen thoughtfully and then make good decisions are sacrificed for sound bites and tribalism.

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It is time to choose a politics of consensus. It is time to choose leaders who listen to all, not just the most liberal or the most conservative. It is time to choose leaders who have the best interest of society.

Vedat Gashi is a proven leader. He understands that a myopic vision for the future will only divide. He understands what it means to build and maintain alliances both across the aisle and across the world. He is loyal and intelligent, unwilling to abandon ideals for political expediency. He has worked hard in our community as a Legislator, seeking to find solutions to our problems such as flooding issues. He is sincere and honest, kind and genuine, direct and thoughtful.

To my fellow Dobbs Ferry residence, please know we have been redistricted. A man who was not elected by us to serve as our representative now stands ready to do so. When the incumbent voted against aid to Ukraine, I took a pause. When the incumbent voted against the Abraham Accords, I became concerned. When the incumbent voted against further support for the Capitol Police after January 6, I knew he was out of touch.

It is our obligation to see him for who he is. We must evaluate what he has done and who he intends to blindly follow even if it means abandoning decades old allies. We must decide if his politics of division has gotten us anywhere and if the choices he has already made, he didn’t vote for the infrastructure bill, he sought to defund the police, he lacks conviction in support of Ukraine and Israel. The votes he has already cast bring us further from a safer, more equitable and more just world.

Rabbi Jay M. Stein, Dobbs Ferry

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