To The Editor:

When people do “the right thing” great things happen. It is what we are witnessing across the world. People voting across party lines. Countries finally uniting to fight a common evil. People coming together, even experiencing abuse and dying, protecting the vulnerable.

Do the right thing is what I live by, especially as an attorney. What I’ve witnessed and experienced my entire Brown life. My father was orphaned at nine and worked sugar cane fields but he was brilliant, hardworking, loyal and humane. He was offered management positions that he rejected. He said it would improve our lives, but he would not be a union member if he accepted and workers need strong union members fighting for everyone. I witnessed his fight for justice until the end.

To do the right thing I’ve climbed through places devastated by earthquakes to offer food and care. I’ve protested racist physical violence and subtle violence manifesting as silence that allows abuse of others. I’ve learned to live boldly, a natural consequence of watching humble people showing up for work or immigration appearances, be shoved down onto their knees to be zip tied with guns to their heads as agents mock them. I’ve watched ICE drive around streets terrorizing families, children, workers. It inoculates you against fear for your own life. It connects you to people you have little in common with. Especially, when you must tell someone their loved one has died but asking for an investigation will put them at risk of detention. I have warned faithful people that there is no guarantee they will not be kidnapped if they attend a well-intentioned but not advisable ICE informational meeting at the local church. I’ve listened to young people explain why their stories prevent them from dreaming, volunteering that our sons look like them but are attorneys; one Harvard law and the other a Saltzman scholar, despite the racism in the world.

So, when I hear that a group that is entrusted with the responsibility of picking a candidate that can represent the party beliefs and the well being of the voters and community, is considering pitting its two candidates against one another, I cannot be silent. There is little chance of winning when we, thereby, create ammunition for use by the adversary. If both candidates are worthy of the position, the party committee must interview both comprehensively, in pursuit of the common good, and choose the candidate best able to get the job done. Then the party rallies behind that candidate because it is good for the community. That is what educating “all voters about candidates, issues and solutions” truly means. Assuming one’s responsibility for the sake of all.

Yolanda Castro Arcé

Newtown