Anyone driving through Narrowsburg might become curious about the conversations in this house, which sports both a Trump and Harris banner. 

“A lot of people ask me about it,” homeowner “Lurch” Campfield said when I stopped by to take a photo.

“The Harris sign is for my daughter,” he said. “It’s her opinion. I have mine. When people ask I tell them, ‘Everybody has a right to their opinion.’ And I respect that.”

I’ve known Lurch for a long time. Fully bearded, driving a pickup truck with big tires, he’s got a reputation and a lifestyle of being a rough-and-tumble kind of a guy. I’ve watched him grab snapping turtles by the tail and move them out of the road by the River Reporter office to relocate them safely back into Little Lake Erie. Legend has it that at one point in his youth, he took a live chainsaw into a Cochecton bar and started taking down the door jam. This is all to say, that we all grow up and you can’t judge a book by its cover.

It’s also to say that when the election is all said and done, we will still need to collectively solve the pressing challenges that we face in our local communities. And we would do well to adopt Campfield’s bi-partisan stance of making room for people to fundamentally disagree.

More importantly, from my perspective, when people with different ideologies work together to address a local challenge, better solutions are found. And certainly, we face a tremendous number of collective challenges ahead.

As much of the national news scene is staking out partisan positions and reporting through a specific lens, making room for different ideologies and holding space for people’s opposing values is one of the success measures of the River Reporter. This, of course, does not happen in a vacuum. Misinformation is rampant, and there is a huge divide between what people believe is going on and what is actually going on. This is why it is so important that we thoughtfully attempt to communicate. In contrast to the quick comeback, well thought-out dialogue and expression yields results for all. 

Constructive, engaged and civil engagement changes the environment of division. It aids the concept and execution of democracy, a government by the people and for the people. It goes better if people participate and act on their values. And fundamentally, it’s imperative that people have the information that they need to make informed decisions. 

Beyond our ideologies and our concepts, if we really want to communicate with each other, conversations and discussions go better if people’s fundamental needs and emotions are addressed. 

And, ultimately, if we can put our collective care for our communities in the forefront and see the other as a neighbor with some kind of modicum of good will, we might actually have some good come out of our current turmoil.

There is a palpable presence in all of our psyches that the outcome of this election is monumental to the United States’ existential existence.

Finding a way back to each other and our care and concern will be fundamental to our society going forward.

For now, vote. Participate. Smile at your neighbor. 

Keep community at the center of our collective civic life.