Reflections On This Moment

Yesterday morning we had a City Council goal setting workshop. I find these workshops energizing because it's a chance to really dig in with fellow Councilors and City Department heads to help shape our individual and collective vision for this two year term. It's a time to reflect on what's going well, where we can do better, and how we might set goals to move our community forward. I had grand plans to work on a video or a write up yesterday afternoon to give a little more insight into that process and our discussions. For a host of reasons that seemed less pressing when I sat down to try to write something.

During a break in the workshop there was a quick check of the news and the first words about another shooting in Minneapolis came through. We went back to our task but it was on my mind as we continued our goal setting discussions. After the workshop and as more news and details came to light throughout the afternoon and evening I found myself at a loss to write not just about the workshop but anything at all. Eventually, here's what came out:

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I didn't post here after Renee Good was killed mostly because I didn't know what to say. Friends and family lost a loved one, a community lost a kind soul, children lost their mother. What more could my words add?

Alex Pretti's killing echos those losses - Friends and family lost a loved one, a community of nurses lost a colleague, patients lost a caregiver and a researcher.

Anytime a life is lost is a tragedy and the more I mull these events over, the more the knots people are tying themselves in to justify these deaths make me wonder.

Wonder what happened to our ability to use debate and democracy to work out our differences.

Wonder what happened to our democratic ideals of the right to assemble and to free speech and to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Wonder what happened to love your neighbor.

Wonder what happened to our humility and our humanity.

In Dover we pride ourselves on being a welcoming community. I know we don't always get it right. I know there are people who feel excluded and left out. I know there are people who don't feel safe.

I also know that here in Dover we stand up for one another.

That we can respect our differences and recognize that they make our community stronger.

That we seek to be an inclusive and inviting and safe community.

That we ask really hard questions of our City staff to ensure that they are well trained and empathetic and upholding the highest standards of integrity.

That on Council we seek to be an example of healthy and respectful debate and disagreement.

That we look out for the good of all members of our community, regardless of race, class, gender, etc.

What's going on right now in Minneapolis and Maine and before that in Los Angeles and in other smaller ways around the country and in our region is designed to create chaos and fear not just in immigrant communities but in all of us. A government that needs us to fear it doesn't actually have the most important piece of a democracy - the consent of the governed.

And so I'm sad and angry.

Sad for Renee and Alex's families.

Angry that those in power at the highest level feel they can decide our future.

Sad for the families of those who followed all the rules and are still facing deportation.

Angry that time and money that could be used to build up our communities is being used to tear them apart.

Sad for our democracy.

Angry that it's come to this.

I was raised to value the importance of different voices working together through our democratic processes to wrestle (figuratively) through what ideas and options would move our communities, our states, our country forward.

I was raised with stories of the echoes of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War and the early environmental movement and how hard those moments were.

I was raised to understand that those hard times had made our country stronger and that while we don't all have to agree, we'd sacrificed a lot to get where we were and that our country was grappling with our history and righting our wrongs.

I was raised that every voice matters and that if we all contribute just a little we keep moving our communities forward together.

And that's part of why I wanted to serve my community on City Council. To be one small gear in the great machine of democracy.

And what I've come to reflect on more and more is that we must recognize that our everyday actions, not just voting, are what keep democracy strong. It's voting of course, but it's also accepting that your neighbor might practice a different religion than you - or no religion at all. Understanding that I have no more right to my citizenship than someone else just because I can go back one step further in my family tree. Recognizing that part of democracy is looking out for - and yes sometimes paying for supports for - those who are less fortunate. That it's also appreciating how precarious and fragile it all is.

But it's also remembering that "we the people" are what make this country and this democracy great.

And so I hope that regardless of what you feel your "politics" are, we can come together in this moment and share in stating that the actions that the Federal Executive Branch is taking right now aren't what we the people want.

We have three co-equal branches of government for a reason - checks and balances. We have multi-scalar governance (federal, state, local) for a reason - separation of powers and representativeness to address complex issues. I believe in the power of institutions to help us uphold our values, but at the end of the day I believe more in people.

In people who step up to say what's happening is wrong.

In people who check in on their neighbors.

In people who do the hard work of building community and connection.

In people who share their vision of a future we can live in together.

In people who show up everyday to try to make things just a little better for everyone.

Even in all this sadness and anger and uncertainty, I'm hopeful. We the people are kinder, more empathetic, more willing to call for and create change than those in the Federal Executive Branch leadership would have you believe.

Keep speaking up, keep calling your representatives, keep talking to your neighbors, keep helping those less fortunate, keep building strong communities.

Those are the threads of the democracy I want to be a part of with each of you.

Those are the threads that build a government on the consent of the governed.

Those are the threads that support life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

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These are my own thoughts as I can't speak on behalf of the whole council but I would hope all agree.