Letters to the Editor

Letter: We’re in this together

Recently, I had an exchange that was important enough that I feel compelled to share. At best, I hope it only shows how busy our lives have become and how easily that can make us overlook the needs of others. Because I’d rather not believe the worst in our Alaska neighbors.

At an Anchorage grocery store on Saturday morning, a mother with her son in the shopping cart asked people on the other side of the aisle for help. “Excuse me,’’ she said, and they looked at her, and walked away. “Excuse me,” she said again, as I walked toward her from farther down the aisle. She needed help understanding the cost of the juice she was looking to buy.

This mother was not challenged by reading or mathematics; she just wasn’t sure what the sale sign meant. I’m truly hoping that somehow those folks who didn’t help her just didn’t realize she was talking to them. I’m hoping maybe that they missed her simple request because they were too engrossed in their own grocery lists.

What struck me, as I explained to her that the confusing product sign meant she could get two of the juice bottles for $5, was how simple it was to help this woman. How much she clearly appreciated my help and how brave it was for her to ask for the assistance of strangers.

As she thanked me and smiled, grasping juice bottle in hand, I feebly apologized for the folks who had ignored her. “Have a good morning,” I told her, looking past her hijab at her son who was eager to help put the juice bottle into her basket.

Maybe I’m just oversensitive, but I literally had tears welling up as I moved into the next aisle. Did I really just see people refuse to help a mother and her child because she was dressed so differently than them? Because she was speaking with an accent as she was struggling with how best to buy food for her family? I must have been mistaken, I hoped.

As I said, I want to believe that this was just a matter of people being too busy and unaware of others to be helpful. And I hope we all will pay more attention and be a little more eager to be there for our neighbors. All of our neighbors.

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I firmly believe that Alaskans’ “We’re all in this together” spirit is what makes our home different than other places. We just cannot let that change.

— Jill Rush

Anchorage

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