To The Editor:

For a while it was trendy around here to put up signs that said, "We Choose Love." I wonder where those signs went. Because lately it feels like instead of engaging in discussion to find common ground, we greet opposing discourse with ridicule, suspicion, and slander. Instead of listening to understand somebody else's point of view, we shout them down. Instead of a real conversation, we trade insults. It seems we notice the speck in our brother's eye while ignoring the beam in our own.

I do not care how recently Rob Blanchard moved to Newtown, or exactly when Amybeth Laroche paid her car tax bill. I care about what these candidates stand for, and who they're willing to stand up to.

I've waited patiently for each of them to tell me where they stand on what matters to me and my neighbors. So far, Rob Blanchard has told me he mows his own lawn, that he has a (beautiful) two-year-old, and that he's going to "stop MAGA politics," whatever that's supposed to mean to somebody living in Newtown.

Amybeth Laroche, meanwhile, has been loud and clear online, and in real life about the things affecting me: property taxes, electric bills, the nightmare that is local zoning these days. The rights of parents, the Flock cameras going up around town. I could go on.

Amybeth has been walking the walk for Newtown not just paying lip service. Amybeth is a real candidate, showing up to this election with actual ideas and a real plan, not someone coasting by on personality until the votes are counted and then going quiet until the next cycle rolls around. If you want a candidate of action who really believes what she says, vote Laroche.

Vincent Cuocci

Newtown