Well, we had an election. And we had an upset (see page 4). Challenger Keith Silvia beat long time Selectboard member Charlie Murphy. We wish Charlie well in his next endeavor, I’m sure he will remain visible through all his other activities in town.
And we wish Keith good luck in his new role.
My hope is that Mr. Silvia will use that plain-talk-no-nonsense stuff he’s been yapping about and use it to be independent. If he takes each issue on its own merit and uses his OWN head to make decisions, he’ll do just fine.
Should be an interesting year or two.
Fairhaven also had a Black Lives Matter protest at the high school, organized by two recent graduates (see page 17). The event got emotional as students and others recounted some personal experiences they had.
It can be hard to listen, I mean really listen, as people talk about painful events in their lives, especially if it’s about a place (the high school) that people love. But the students managed to get some administrators to attend. Let’s hope they heard what was said.
FHS is overwhelmingly white, so this is not an easy thing for anyone. On the other hand, it seems that the more diverse places are also struggling. We all have biases, some we recognize, some we don’t; some we recognize and can’t change anyway, and some we won’t.
All it really takes is respect. If we just respect each other as human beings and recognize that we all have hurts and bad experiences, and things that we just can’t get past. We need to give each other the space to live with our own….stuff, without judging people.
We need to make sure that we are not contibuting to other people’s hurts. And when the problem is systemic, when it comes from an ingrained culture that is stubbornly refusing to change, it will take every single one of us who cares to make it happen.
This not going to be easy, but it MUST get done. We need to get it done.
I have a lot of faith in the young people of today. They can do this. They have their share of bigots and racists, too. But the percentages are seriously eroding. Keep it up, kids. I’m sorry we didn’t get it done for you. Keep at it. You will prevail. I know you will.
Until next week then…
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