Lately, I have become aware of a persistent theme in our town’s civic discourse. Consider our community-wide debate over a middle school name, our conversation over removing outdated and culturally insensitive signage, our stated positions on the residential tax exemption, and our Select Board’s current deliberations on flag policy. All these issues illuminate who we are, they frame how we wish to be seen. They force me to question whether we hold an expansive or restrictive view of the citizens and cultures that compose our community.
At the September 23, 2024, Select Board meeting, I described how the concept of an expansive or restrictive society remains quite real to me. I remember my family guardedly searching for a safe place to sleep as we traveled by car between New York and Louisiana in the late 1950’s. True, we possessed the expansive freedom of interstate travel, but we were restricted as to where we could safely seek accommodation. How does that differ from having the expansive freedom to use one pole, one flag, for one day, but being restricted from seeing one’s culture or ethos celebrated widely by the place you call home?
I applaud the expansive, overarching view our Select Board holds for our community, but what am I to make of this current debate over flag policy? Competent individuals compose our board. Is the apparent impasse on this issue due to a failure of imagination or too narrow a worldview? We are a diverse community. As I asked that evening, I once again challenge our elected leaders to use their authority not to craft policy that shields from risk, but to create legally prudent policy that grants the greatest freedoms to the widest swath of citizens they have the privilege to serve.
Michael Williams
Sudbury Road