Letters

When my children (12, 9) ask about politics, our discussion often begins with a question: What do you value?

Kindness is big for them. Also, trust. Fairness. Music (in general), Dylan and Swift (in particular). 

Lately, “being heard” is trending hard in our household. My kids value the ability to speak without being interrupted. (Although listening without interrupting remains a work in progress. For us all.)

Makes sense. Attention, Simone Weil said, is the rarest and purest form of generosity. My kids bloom under the full sun of my undivided attention. (I ignore them at our peril; they wilt in partial shade.)

When I pay attention to people in my family or neighborhood, at school or church, I hear their desire to be good to each other. It’s there in conversations in checkout lines, at mailboxes. In jokes, compliments. In the time taken to exchange names or inquire after loved ones.

Daily, I see a hundred gentle kindnesses in our community, each one a point of connection, binding us to one another. We check on sick neighbors. Bring extra snacks to share. Pick litter off the beach. Open our circle so newcomers can pull up a chair. Support the local lemonade stand. Yield to pedestrians (and turtles). Accompany friends to the doctor. Look out for the kids, our own and everyone else’s. It takes a village, after all. We’re that village for each other.

When I pay attention, I see my values reflected back: community, generosity, kindness.

I don’t see these values in the recent legislation passed with our congressman’s support.

This so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” cuts Medicaid and health care access for elderly and disabled neighbors. It strips food benefits from 270,000 veterans, unhoused individuals, and young adults exiting foster care.

It de-funds cleaner, cheaper energy sources that would help meet our growing energy demands and diminish the severity of natural disasters.

It takes approximately $700 annually from households in the bottom 20 percent.

It adds $3 trillion to $4 trillion to our deficit.

What do we get in return for this monumental loss?

We get a bloated ICE budget to expand deportation — but not oversight.

The top 0.1 percent of households gets $100,000 more annually.

And our own community gets five — only five — years of an increased SALT cap. (I understand that extending this limit to $40,000 eases a burden too many of us shoulder, but if the original 2017 tax plan expired this year, as it was scheduled to do, we’d resume unlimited SALT deductions. That burden would’ve been eliminated.)

This bill (now law) doesn’t reflect values I see in our community. It’s ungenerous. Unkind.

This isn’t who I am.

And it’s not who you are, either.

Jennifer Fiore

East Quogue