Tag: George Floyd

Burke said her proclamation was based on one passed last month by the city of Somerville, near Cambridge.

And yet even with my family and professional history, I am learning daily about acts of racial policy and violence in our country’s history and in contemporary life that I hadn’t known, and that connect the dots to reveal a country bathed in the blood of racism.

For many years, Ralph Ellison and his wife Fanny summered in the woods of Plainfield, Mass.

It’s pretty plain to me that Cuomo can be taken at his word that he is not interested in the presidency this time around. But Andrew Cuomo isn’t governor because he has no ambition.

I tell you all this because what’s new is old to me. And I have a slightly different perspective on the events following George Floyd’s murder.

In his letter Steve Rubin writes: "The Berkshire Jewish Federation and every synagogue in the county encouraged their membership to attend Saturday’s demonstration."

Dennis Powell, of course, has done a great deal in our area for which he should be very proud.

These are the voices that matter. Our young people are stepping up, speaking out, they are tired!

More than 2,000 people attended the Black Lives Matter demonstration in front of the historic Great Barrington Town Hall where the first resistance to British rule took place in 1775.

Longtime police Chief Bill Walsh told the board his department was an early adopter of the principles enunciated in President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Still, I felt that in the absence of any semblance of national leadership, there was a need for more than righteous anger from the protestors.

In a letter to the editor, Anne Thidemann French and Ward Johnson write, "Our students need us now more than ever as they try to understand and make meaning of the violence in our society."

The people on TV keep saying, “We are better than this.” What does that mean? Were we better than this once?

It is vitally important for those of us who have not been affected by racial discrimination and oppression to be the allies of those who are.

In a letter to the editor, the Clinton Church Restoration board members write, "Du Bois’ writing in 'Souls' reminds us that the systemic racism that led to the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and too many other Black people in this country is not new."

In a letter to the editor, Mae Whaley writes, "As much as it is necessary for us to stay aware of the overt ways in which police departments across the country are contributing to racism, we cannot allow the constant images and videos of tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades to lower our standards for how we expect our police to behave."