Take a deep breath.
Now, let’s review.
The Town of Concord’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Commission was created by our town’s Select Board in response to a grassroots initiative by citizens of our town who wished to uphold the common virtues of fair play, equal rights, and celebration. As constituted, our town’s DEI Commission serves as an entirely advisory body to the elected Select Board. The DEI Commission itself cannot enact or enforce any municipal action.
And yet this is the same committee that has been hyperbolically accused of having the power to use “scorched-earth” tactics in order to advance its supposedly “divisive” agenda.
Let’s stop pretending that the “bullying” DEI Commission unnecessarily fell upon our town, unbidden, from outer space. Let’s stop pretending that it has a “MAGA-like” agenda. The DEI Commission is not an imposition upon the town of Concord. It is, rather, an expression of the beliefs already held by the overwhelming majority of Concordians, as eloquently expressed at Town Meeting in regard to naming the new middle school after Ellen Garrison, a local and heroic educator.
Instead of puffing up and griping and seeing enemies at every turn, let’s us recall what the DEI movement, and our town’s committee, is really all about.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Paying lip service to that inclusive sentiment is easy. It is also apparently easy to fall into a kind of “Golden Rule Nimbyism,” as it seems sadly difficult for some of our residents to accept it when this sacred principle is acted upon, here and now, in our town.
Craig Awmiller
Lang Street