Thanks for covering the recent resignations from the Northampton Human Rights Commission. I applaud the mayor’s decision to attend their next meeting when a quorum is restored.
People who are attuned to human rights are committed to giving time and passion to concerns with economic and racial inequity. They are seldom folks who lay low and think inside the box.
The concerns raised by the outgoing commissioners are familiar and completely legitimate, in my experience. They deserve to be respected. It takes creativity and conviction, and support, to serve in city government and yet question the status quo.
Hearing the concerns of people who lack the social and political capital to count on being safe is a very difficult task in the best and most supportive municipalities. Noting that Northampton is not San Francisco, as an editorial did, seems a little much. How about comparing us to Amherst, or Medford, or Somerville, or Newton, or Holyoke?
The website for Holyoke states Mayor Alex Morse established a Human Rights Advisory Board “to ensure that issues of basic human rights would be brought to the fore and made a central priority of his administration.”
What a great idea, making human rights a central priority. More than nice educational programs, a just municipality needs a group of courageous and committed people willing to shine a light on difficult issues — and an administration that welcomes and addresses the problems, especially the complex ones.
Let’s hope the new commissioners, as they join the good folks who are still hanging in there, will see that Northampton does not play “small ball” on human rights, as the Gazette put it. Police Chief Jody Kasper, voices representing Black Lives Matter and members of the LGBTQ community are not playing small ball. Neither should the city.
Carol Rinehart
Florence
The writer served on the Human Rights Commission from 2006 to 2013.