community

Comments prepared for delivery at the November 14, 2024 gathering of the Anti-Hate, Anti-Bias Task Force of Middlesex DA Marian T. Ryan

Thank you DA Ryan and ADA Thompson for the honor of speaking here.

DA Ryan, I have long admired your proactive efforts in educating and mobilizing community leaders for preventing harm to elderly people.

This task force led by ADA Antonia Soares Thompson is a bulwark against the flood of hate, bias, and disrespect that threatens to overwhelm us.

Negro Election Day was hot and sunny.

Celebrating Democracy

We hope to live with dignity and respect for our rights, even if we live in public and subsidized housing. However, we often feel like prisoners and we despair for relief.

Enslaved people and their descendants have had a more difficult challenge to seek their rightful place as free persons living with dignity and respect for their rights!

Negro Election Day to Be State Holiday

On the third Saturday of July, the 17th of July, 2022 during the celebration of Negro Election Day at the Salem Willows, Doreen Wade introduced and thanked Senator Joan Lovely and Representative Paul Tucker. The legislators announced that both the Senate and the House had approved a bill to establish the third Saturday in July as a state holiday, and would become law with the signature of the Governor. Lovely and Tucker presented Wade with a duplicate of the proclamation that awaits Baker's signature.

Introduction

Community norms can either promote a healthy, caring community or lead to a toxic community that is harmful. In public and subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled, failure to control bullying and mobbing (group bullying) creates a toxic community, while failing to prevent transmission of COVID-19 can create a deadly situation.

The Sabbath of Friday, November 1 began in darkness at Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody when about 250 people, including the congregation and the invited clergy including members of the Peabody Clergy Ministerial Association (PCMA) and both city and state officials were joined by members of the Peabody community in a demonstration of solidarity in the face of tragedy---the murder of eleven at the Tree of Life.

Dear Friends,

I write in the midst of turmoil, fear, hate, and violence engulfing all of us, while we seek to find a path to travel together towards a world that respects each of us, regardless of who we are. The time is dark, we must create the light. Here are some of the challenges, including events that shatter the peace of a community and bring sudden death to the innocent. These are just some of the reasons we need to act now.

Bending the Arc: Advancing Human Rights in the Commonwealth

The Massachusetts Human Rights Coalition (MAHRC) held their first annual meeting at the State House on Friday, October 12, "Bending the Arc: Advancing Human Rights in the Commonwealth."

Photo: Bending the Arc participants gather on grand staircase at State House

The lesson of the day can be stated simply,

No one is free unless we are all free.