Amherst needs to continue centering our focus, energy and resources to educating and highlighting the worth and value of our children. Our Amherst children, represented in Zayd, Phoenix, Bryson and Keidy, four African-American boys, are sounding their generation’s call for change through the power of a pen and their voices.
I had the pleasure of moderating a community dialogue with them at a recent Coming Together event in the dining room of the First Congregational Church where the Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke. Their collective open letter to President Obama about what Black Lives Matter means for them and their willingness to speak publicly, honestly and from the heart deserve our attention, focus and celebration.
These boys, with their minds, words and wisdom, give us encouragement, hope and opportunity to learn more and do better. I am thankful to those educators for their role in ushering in destiny and our future leaders. If we listen carefully and intently and intentionally enough to these four boys, perhaps we as a community and elected officials can come together in a most courageous and powerful way as these boys to seek and implement change to ensure strong communities for all.
Vira Douangmany Cage
Amherst
The writer is an Amherst School Committee member and candidate for state representative in the 3rd Hampshire District.