More from our inbox:The Costco Effect on ConsumptionEnough With All-Out WeddingsPublishing’s ProblemImageGov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democrats’ candidate for vice president, speaking at a campaign event in Michigan.Credit...Brittany Greeson for The New York Times

To the Editor:

For 24 years, my wife and I lived across the street from Tim and Gwen Walz in Mankato, Minn. They were our sons’ high school teachers. They brought their kids by the front stoop on Halloween. They came to our New Year’s Day party, where everyone ate black-eyed peas for good luck.

When Tim ran for Congress in 2006, we held a fund-raiser at our house, marched in a Fourth of July parade and door-knocked on his behalf. We were proud to support him through six congressional campaigns and two campaigns for governor.

Even though Tim and Gwen moved to St. Paul and the executive residence in 2019, and even though we moved out of state in 2022, we still think of them as neighbors. In our new town, when people discover we know Tim Walz, the question is always the same: Is he for real? The answer is yes. He and Gwen are that kind of people. They are your kids’ most inspiring teachers. They are among the friendliest neighbors you ever had.

The country is lucky to have Tim on the national ticket because, in a position of leadership, that genuine decency and sense of community, matched with energy and vision, will go a long way to help us meet the challenges of the future.

Richard RobbinsCorvallis, Ore.

To the Editor:

If you want to know about what people in small towns value, pick up an increasingly rare independent newspaper from any small town and read the obituaries. You will read — after the names of the survivors and biographical details of the deceased — the contributions that person made to the community.

It might be that she brought meals to the homebound, that he always hired a young person to work in his store after school, that she played the organ at the Methodist church, that he coached Little League, that he taught high school English, but always stayed after school to spend time with the kids who just couldn’t get it. It’s all their neighborly actions that made the small community a better place to live.

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