Yesterday was primary day in New Jersey.
I worked at a polling location from 5AM to about 8:30PM. My team consisted of four people:
-A Muslim woman who came to the US from Pakistan,
-A Coptic (I’m pretty sure) Christian woman who came to the US from Egypt;
-One US-born woman who told us she grew up going to very strict Catholic schools.
I, a Jewish guy who grew up in Brooklyn and Queens before moving to New Jersey, finished out the team.
We were together all that time, talking about our lives while dealing with voting issues…
…and could not have been more friendly and congenial with each other.
The lesson to be learned (and, I hope, never forgotten)? Do NOT judge people by their backgrounds or skin tones or ancestry.
The single straightest line to prejudice, intolerance and hatred is judging people as components of groups instead of as the invidividuals everyone of us is.
