I was an early and vocal advocate for a compromise to honor Ellen Garrison (EG) at Concord Middle School (CMS). While many hoped the issue was settled with the building naming, many of us feared it was a matter of time before the DEI mouthpieces’ renewed their bullying tactics and slur campaign of the School Committee (SC). First, an inventory of existing EG honors: CMS building name, annual “EG day,” town-center statue for 2025 celebrations, EG CCHS curriculum, inclusion in town tours…
Planned honorifics for soon-displaced Sanborn and Peabody…?
The DEI leaders’ latest letter in these pages exposes their true intentions and hypocrisy: They lecture about the “misappropriation of inclusion” as if anointed with exclusive understanding and use of these terms, or that they apply only to a one group of Americans; they claim “lack of transparency” and “absence of evidence-based debate” as if we’ve forgotten that their so-called “large number of petition signatures” during the EG campaign were largely from non-Concord residents or we’ve forgotten about their scorched-earth campaign to remove historic town signage; they attempt moral high ground as if we’ve forgotten about the “Oreo” slur by one of their associates against a METCO representative to the SC (Where was their letter condemning THAT incident?).
This renewed campaign has just begun and their “formal request for full participation” will soon become demands: The “signage” request will become a demand for EG’s name to dominate over CMS; the “opportunity to speak… at the naming ceremony” will become a demand for center stage; the “inclusion of narratives…. throughout the Middle School Program” will become a central weave into curriculum.
It’s past time for the Select Board to step up, stop enabling DEI’s divisive actions, and place the needed limits on it that it should have put in place at its creation.
Joseph Laurin
Southfield Road