To the editor:
I am writing today to plead with the residents of Jefferson County to be better humans. I have had people at the grocery store in Wintersville tell me to "go back where I came from." I was born in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune. I have had friends attacked for being perceived as transgender in Steubenville, because they had short hair and no breasts. They survived cancer. The list goes on and on.
In Florida, it is legal to remove a child from their parents for nail polish if a stranger perceives it as gender affirming care. This new law makes gender affirming care a sex crime, punishable by the death penalty. What will we do when these laws come to Ohio?
What you didn't see on the news was a report on the 261 cameras, including facial recognition, across Steubenville. The majority of those are monitoring public housing. What you did not see was a report on how people in this county are 25 percent more likely to be observed by cameras and facial recognition. One does not have to be beside you in order to see you. They can be at home on their couch or across the world in another country.
People believe anything they read online without finding out if it is true. They spread hate based on what they are being told, even when that information is not true or real. With the prominence of artificial intelligence readily available to anyone, anywhere, it becomes more dangerous for false, or even fabricated, information to be spread within seconds. When people see something and automatically believe it, then vote or attack based on this, it becomes a serious issue.
With false information, fabricated terror and rampant discrimination, I implore the residents of Jefferson County to do better. Learn what is real and what isn't. Learn what it is like to struggle with persecution you have never had to experience, and stop attacking strangers based on your assumptions. The world is already a terrifying place. We do not need to be making it worse.
This line of thinking and ignorance of truth, directly leads to self-harm and death. Think about how you are being shown and what you are not being shown. What you know and what you don't know. Sympathize with people living in a world you have never endured, love everyone, and be better.
River Hunter Wiley
Bergholz