In his letter to the edtior, Daniel Klein writes: "The time has come for all of us to take the next courageous step of declaring our houses of worship in Great Barrington as safe havens."
“Our understanding of the scriptures, scriptures we consider inspired by God, tells us to welcome all people in all circumstances as fellow human beings.”
-- The Rev. Michael Tuck, rector of Trinity Church in Lenox
"Living in fear is the not the quality of a welcoming and safe community — it is instead the very essence of a totalitarian state. A community in which any of our members live in fear is not the kind of community that any of us, regardless of political affiliation, I am sure, want Great Barrington to be."
-- Housatonic resident Anne O’Dwyer
Why is this night different from all other nights? This night is different because it lights my way, in sharp relief, to an understanding that the plague of inhumanity to others only breeds an inhumanity in our souls.
Berkshire Theatre Group Artistic Associate David Adkins reads from Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.”
“We do not discriminate. Our buildings are sanctuaries for everyone to tell their stories. We do not discriminate in which stories we will tell, which culture we may seek to know.”
--- BTG Artistic Director Kate Maguire
“We have all been complicit in the creation of the ‘refugee.’ Just remember the hand we had in the production of that problem, and to even think of another human being in need as a problem.”
-- Asma Abbas, professor of politics and philosophy at Bard College at Simons Rock, Great Barrington
Fear has made Pittsfield-based immigration lawyer Michele Sisselman a very busy woman lately. “It’s frightening,” she said. “And everybody is scared, including U.S. citizens.”
We do not discriminate. Our buildings are sanctuaries for everyone to tell their stories. We do not discriminate in which stories we will tell, which culture we may seek to know.
While town and police department policy already states it will treat undocumented citizens like everyone else, a citizens' petition filed at Town Hall Wednesday lays out a more detailed set of policies modeled after and modified from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) and MiGente trust policies.
The executive order targets the wrong people, complicates an already extreme vetting process that works, and damages our relationship with allies all while giving a new recruiting tool to extremists.
In her letter to the editor, Kate Maguire of the Berkshire Theatre Group writes: “There cannot be boundaries in the arts. We do not discriminate. Our buildings are sanctuaries for everyone to tell their stories. We do not discriminate in which stories we will tell, which culture we may seek to know.”
“Families are frightened, scared and beaten down. What the staff and I do is give them the strength to go to the other organizations, to get through this and get past this.”
--- Michelle Derr, CHP director of WIC [Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program] Family Services
The Great Barrington Police Department will “serve everyone in our community and have zero tolerance for bullying or harassment … and does not investigate civil immigration laws, as this role falls to the federal government.”
--- from the Resolution adopted by the Great Barrington Selectboard
In her letter to the editor, Tiffany Wilding-White writes: “Our children are growing up in a world where many human rights on which America was built are in peril: clean air and water, safe schools, equal rights for women, minorities, and immigrants.”
The overwhelming and widely recognized anxiety that we seem to share in the perpetual run up to this election is that both candidates cast shadows over the entire political soul of our nation.