I grew up in Waterville and it saddens me to read the news about what I will call the misunderstandings between Catherine Weeks and her neighbors Rasmiya Fezaa and Falah Waheeb (“Immigrant family says Waterville Planning Board member told them they’re not welcome in her ‘white’ neighborhood,” Aug. 28).

We cannot begin to understand what life has been like for Rasmiya and Falah. They journeyed to our country from Iraq to become Americans and no doubt faced many unknown challenges along the way. Maybe Weeks has also faced challenges in her life; maybe not. We don’t know. What we do know is that we all have our stories and that it is important to hear each other’s stories. And as Michael Eric Dyson says in the forward to “White Fragility,” the New York Times bestseller, “What it means to be American is not what it means to be white.”

Kindness is a universal language that everyone understands. My hope is that Catherine, Rasmiya and Falah could hear each other’s stories in a safe, private environment where compassion, understanding and kindness would come forward. My belief is that this would lead to a resolution to this problem.

With hope for more kindness in our world,

Lisa Bard Clement

Falmouth