The proposal to cover the historic markers and the Select Board’s hasty vote to approve it suggests the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission and the Board are not behaving in good faith. A more inclusive solution would have been to propose a new commemoration of indigenous peoples. Instead, DEI and the Select Board focused on the negative and chose to erase markers that commemorate both the English settlers and the Indigenous peoples. Their action suggests that the goal is not to promote unity and harmony, but to find ways to defame Concord’s history.
If these mere signs are objectionable, what part of colonial Concord’s history would not appeal to the fetish of finding offense? Will the Colonial Inn have to change its name? What about historic homes? Was the land they sit on illegally acquired? Will individuals buried in the Old Hill and South Burying Grounds have to be disinterred for not conforming to present-day sensibilities? And why stop with the colonial era? Offense is everywhere if you look hard enough (and let’s face it, somebody had to look pretty hard to find offense in these nearly century-old markers). Do we really want to know where further episodes of competitive virtue signaling will take us?
Mark Dobbins
Elsinore Street
