I read about our town’s all-inclusive culture, mentioning only race, sex, orientation, color, and class.
What about culture and religion?
How many Select Board members do we have that are from a different culture? From a different religion (non-evangelical Christians, or Catholics or Jewish, etc.)? Or Native Americans, Hindu, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, etc.? How many members are immigrants, first generation, in our DEI?
Do we have in all our town and school calendars all the holidays? Do we observe those as well, besides Christian Evangelicals, Protestants, Catholics and Jewish? I have been a town resident since 2005 and I have not seen it on calendars, local or state.
How are we non-racists when even today we collect (rightfully so) as a town real estate and personal property taxes from taxpayers that are not U.S. citizens, hence they cannot vote in our town elections?
They are the ones that probably face more challenges, as I had back in the 1980’s when as a young Greek student with foreign visa I attended University of Lowell, and because my name is Yannis Tsitsas, a non Anglo-Saxon name, and I was not the stereotyped short, dark hair and skin Greek, and with my heavy accent, professors and others thought that I was Russian, not Greek, and thus a communist. The treatment based on the perception of being a communist back then was equal or worse than being a black person.
Based on my family upbringing, I knew that racists exist everywhere and on all levels. However, they are a minority and we should focus on the rest of the well-meaning people.
So please, let’s stop the hypocrisy in our great town and treat also all cultures and religions equally, starting now in our town, giving them voice, and do not wait for later.
Yannis Tsitsas
Brook Trail Road
