WELCOMING WORDS

Dear Editor,

Perhaps we can appreciate both what George Capsis and his staff at WestView News (WVN) contribute to the Village and now what The Village View (VV) appears in its first few issues to promise.

I believe many people are interested in more deeply understanding and celebrating who and what the Village was and is now as well as what we are becoming. It appears to me that VV is already adding its own resources to that possibility.

I was delighted, for example, to read about Kenia Hernandez who works at Brooklyn Fare. And it is such a pleasure now to greet Kenia, enjoy her warm smile, appreciate her long commute and know that she is studying to work in Special Education. It was also a nice surprise to learn my own building’s new porter, Ronnie, loves cats and volunteers with the ASPCA. I so love as well the coverage of some of our animal companions and their human friends, some of whom I now speak to on the streets (both the dogs and the people of course).

VV also recently published a fuller obituary than The New York Times of my old friend Barbara Love. It honored her courageous and inspiring contributions to the Women’s, Lesbian, Feminist and Gay movements. And I’m also encouraged that VV seems to be moving toward what I consider to be a very inviting balance of men’s and women’s voices.

Even more personally, I find my Village “reserve” lessening and my desire growing to help create a more relaxed and expanded sense of community. And as you might imagine, that is much more fun as well.

—Jan Crawford