OP-ED: Locking Your Door is a Rejection of Faith in Your Fellow Man

Every night I stroll along the streets of Georgetown. People say I always notice the little things in life. I guess that’s true, because when I’m walking I’ll notice an out-of-place trash can, a tree branch that has fallen, a drunken coed sleeping on a living room couch next to an open window—things most people may not be conscious of as they’re passing by.

But one of the even subtler things I notice these days is just how little we trust each other. What has happened to American society? Used to be you trusted your neighbors. Used to be you didn’t let fear of the unlikely chance that an intruder would enter your home to steal your TV or sexually assault you stop you from keeping your door open and unlocked.

In the great rolling rural fields of the heartland, this may still be the case. But despite the allure of the iconic family farm, simpler life, and luscious virgin farmer’s-daughter, most of us can’t live our lives there. We have to make our modern lives in modern cities, but by doing so, we lose something. And the loss of that something is felt every night right here in the grandest of all neighborhoods in our nation’s capital.

I’m here to say, students, that locking your door at night is a rejection of faith in your fellow man. When we lose that sense of trust, our society becomes fractured. We stop talking to each other. We stop participating in civic activities. And we lose the ability to see the common bond we share as Americans and as human beings, the bond that brings all of us together, the bond of half of us in the small spoon position and the other half of us separated by a blanket in the big spoon position.

When we give up that trust, what we really give up is trust in democracy. How can we rule as one people when we won’t talk to each other and see our commonality? How can we trust the decisions of the people who elect leaders we don’t agree with? When will our fear of one another become so great that we give the death penalty for every crime, regardless of the fact that the guy was really gentle and only put his fingers in there because it was obvious by her not saying no and by continuing to be asleep that she wanted it.

We must strive to come back together. It begins with human contact, a basic need we all have. Reach out and touch someone today. They don’t want you shaking their hand? Find a way to touch them anyway. When they wake up and find you there, they will have a whole new understanding of what they have been missing in life and what needs to happen for our civil society to rebuild itself.

So undergrads, leave that door unlocked and open to a new trust in your fellow citizen. You may think that this small step will have no impact and go unnoticed, but I can assure you I check every door at Georgetown every night and will come in to thank you personally for doing your part. And if you happen to be asleep, I’ll just have to find somewhere comfortable nearby to wait and something to do to occupy myself in the meantime.