Have You Seen Luis Velez? is a beautiful story of a seventeen-year-old boy and an elderly blind woman connecting with each other and finding a way out of their loneliness.

The story is set in New York City, with its mingling of indifference and the occasional surprise of caring strangers. The story weaves a subtle tale of tribalism but also times when tribalism is overcome. Thus it is a tale of hope.

I read the novel as hate flew back and forth in news stories about four young congresswoman of color, their liberalism riling even some members of their own party.

It wasn’t the stands they took or opposition to those stands. No one has perfect knowledge. Our political system is supposed to provide a way for differences to be lived with and for solutions to be hammered out that work.

Instead, many descended to pure hatred.

I was angry, but something worse joined my anger. For the first time, I became afraid that this country I love will be lost.

I began to fear this tribalism, this unAmerican belief that one group of people is intrinsically superior to all others. It sneaks up on us in our fear of change—the belief that a few people deserve to rule all the rest. It seems so safe, so beguiling.

Are white Europeans superior? That’s the people who, after centuries of bloodshed and fighting, finally began the two worst wars the world has ever seen.

For the first time, I’m afraid too many of us may succumb to hatred.

Yet, as in Luis Velez, it may be possible to step across that fear and hatred. Possible, perhaps, to listen and search for wise and just answers, not those born of knee-jerk hatred against the stranger.