For almost 60 years I have carried the guilt that I never (properly) responded to a neighbor of mine in Sag Harbor who made a disparaging remark to me about someone's ethnicity. Instead I just looked down and muttered something unintelligible. I had thought he was a friend, and I suppose he was, but I allowed that friendship to mute me when I should have rebuffed him. He's dead now, so in a sense, my circle is smaller. But not because I did the right, honorable thing.
For almost 60 years I have carried the guilt that I never (properly) responded to a neighbor of mine in Sag Harbor who made a disparaging remark to me about someone's ethnicity. Instead I just looked down and muttered something unintelligible. I had thought he was a friend, and I suppose he was, but I allowed that friendship to mute me when I should have rebuffed him. He's dead now, so in a sense, my circle is smaller. But not because I did the right, honorable thing.