Opinion

Letter to the Editor: The community we are trying to build

The community we are trying to build

What I didn’t say in the Claremont City Council meeting Wednesday night when I spoke in the discussion about the censuring of Jon Stone is that this is a critical time in our nation’s history to turn around our racist past. We need leadership to not be afraid of standing up for what is right in all spheres of our society. We need to commit to justice and equality for all. Communities committed to justice and equality are love made real.

I like Jon Stone, who was the focus of censure last night. I have met him personally and have had a brief and positive interaction with him one on one. If the council censured him, I would be OK with that, though, because it is making a stand for what is acceptable in our community. Not to shame or blame, but to say, “No, this is not OK here.” It is not OK for Jon Stone to say “F*** Black Lives Matter” on a Facebook post or anywhere if we want to have a community that “strives to be a city where all people can feel protected, included, secure and safe,” “recognizes the issues of systemic racism across the country and in our daily lives,” and that the efforts of the city “not only condemn racism, but will be used as a call to action for our community to fight against systemic racism and all forms of social injustice” as declared and approved in Resolution 2021-6 by the city council on July 22.

I truly believe that if people were educated about the issues of racial injustice, that Jon Stone and Walt Stapleton who opposed that resolution would be on board with creating a community that “recognizes the issues of systemic racism… and in our daily lives” and where all “feel protected, included, secure and safe” because we’ve done the good work of rooting out racism within and without. This is our time to stand up and mean for real that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” That is the leadership I am looking for to stand up for justice for all, everywhere, all the time, whatever the venue. Thank you to those city councilors who have made that message clear. God bless our efforts to create the “beloved community” that Jesus Christ, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and many others envision.

Rebecca MacKenzie

Claremont, NH

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