Guest writer and photographer: Hannah Stonebraker 

One must recognize they too are people.

(This may seem simple. This may seem obvious. I wish, these days, all days, it was.)

They too are people. (Not animals. Not enemies, Not primitives. People.) Whomever you consider your other, whomever you consider to be your intellectual, ideological, religious, territorial enemy – they too are people.

They too have mothers and sons and daughters and wives and friends.

They too love and hate and give and take.

They too believe what they believe for reasons both known and unknown both to themselves and to others.

They too believe things with which I both agree and disagree – intellectually, emotionally, painfully, ideologically.

But hard as it may be – I shall try to listen.

Listen to these reasons, listen to their beliefs, listen to their pain and ideology and fear.

An overwhelming amount of fear.

For what…