As a divided nation wakes up to the news of a second presidential term for Donald Trump, more than 90 leaders from Salem and Keizer are calling for hope, community and understanding. In an open letter published Wednesday morning, dozens of pastors, law enforcement officials, nonprofit leaders, city councilors and elected officials from both major parties signed an “Open Letter for Hope.” “We believe that everyone deserves to feel a sense of belonging. We choose to build belonging through our everyday actions: seeing one another as fellow community members and treating everyone with dignity and respect in all our interactions,” the letter reads. “In choosing to live in Salem and Keizer, we choose belonging over division. We choose hope over despair. We choose our community,” it concludes. READ IT: Open Letter for Hope in Salem & Keizer The letter grew out of a series of meetings local leaders have been having over the past year to discuss fostering a better sense of belonging in Salem. At a dinner last week, members of the group discussed an open letter Portland leaders had just put out rejecting political violence following arsons at local ballot boxes. A few leaders present for that meeting “were inspired to put together … a call to commitment and reach out to our networks and say, ‘We want to be people who are known for these things,’” said Kyle Dickinson, incoming executive director of the Salem Leadership Foundation.  The foundation, which encourages local churches to get involved in the Salem community, published the letter Wednesday morning. It was written before election results were known. Superintendent Andrea Castañeda of the Salem-Keizer School District drafted the letter, which others in the group revised or otherwise contributed suggestions. Each circulated it to their colleagues and networks. “I believe that Salem-Keizer is a very close knit community and at our core we want the best for our city and our neighbors,” Castañeda said in an interview. “The letter is just the start of an invitation to come together and explore what it looks like to rise together.” The result includes diverse signers: Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack, Salem Mayor Chris Hoy, Mayor-Elect Julie Hoy, a majority of Salem city councilors, Keizer Mayor Cathy Clark, Keizer City Council President Shaney Starr and state Reps. Tom Andersen, Paul Evans and Kevin Mannix. Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron, District Attorney Paige Clarkson and Sheriff Nick Hunter signed on, as did Polk County Sheriff Mark Garton and Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton. Leaders from nonprofit and advocacy organizations including the Boys & Girls Club, Church at the Park, farmworker union PCUN, Salem for Refugees, Marion Polk Food Share, Liberty House, Isaac’s Room, Family Building Blocks, Capital Futbol Club, Micronesian Islander Community and more also signed. Levi Herrera-Lopez, executive director of Mano a Mano, a nonprofit serving mostly farmworker and Latino families, helped craft the letter. He said he’s been working over the past year to encourage community leaders to be more vocal about shared values. In recent years in Salem, “I feel like there were instances where different communities were targeted and very few people stood up or said anything public that this kind of hate speech doesn’t represent our community,” Herrera-Lopez said, referring to rhetoric targeting immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. He hoped a shared statement of nonpartisan values gives community leaders a place to start and a public commitment to hold one another accountable. “The intent is to remind people whatever happens, we’re here, we’re a community and we’re doing our best and we gotta keep doing our best,” he said. Dickinson said the letter is also a commitment from leaders to push back against rhetoric that’s potentially harmful toward any group of people in Salem. “We will move toward things that are difficult together and we will say, ‘This is who we are,’” he said. Castañeda said she sees the letter as opening the door for more community dialogue. “Salem-Keizer is a special place and one of the ways we can know that is that over 90 people from really diverse backgrounds stepped forward at an important moment and said, ‘We can agree that a few things are true, and one of those is affirming the importance of our community and its future,’” she said. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Salem, Keizer leaders pledge to promote belonging, community amid divisive election appeared first on Salem Reporter.