As the presidential campaign moved from summer to fall, it was clear the outcome would be negative regardless of who won. Across the political spectrum too many people felt alienated. Our national political process was broken, and everyone knew it.
It is time to change our public discourse and approach to political action, and I am asking for your participation.
What we choose to do at this critical moment matters. Now more than ever we need local communication and community engagement. It means resisting the urge to retreat to respective corners. Instead we must stand together to protect civil rights and address the indignity of economic stagnation, while confronting underlying division so it does not grow.
National political rhetoric has elevated hateful speech. Locally we have seen personal insults and increased incidents of intolerance in schools. It is unacceptable that anyone feels unsafe because of the color of their skin, their gender, their religion, or who they love. In this environment we must be clear: we have come too far in the fight against discrimination and we will not go backward.
We also see that many have felt another pressure. Job insecurity is real, and dignity is threatened by an inability to provide for one’s family. Too often policies cater to the nation’s elite while it is harder than ever for the rest to just get by. It is unacceptable that wages have stagnated and workers and small towns are not prioritized. In this environment it is easy to trigger scapegoating or calls for an unprecedented shift in leadership.
Regardless of who you voted for, we should all be concerned when neighbors feel unsafe, forgotten or disregarded. We cannot forget that what makes us special in this region and this great country is the bonds that keep us together.
Protecting our collective values is what deserves our attention in this moment – that all men and women are created equal, that everyone can live and work with respect and dignity, and proud support of tolerance and freedom. It includes the right of my immigrant grandfather to come here to seek a life full of promise, and raised my father who fought for this country in the Navy.
We also have shared responsibilities to one another. That means standing up for fundamental civil rights here in the commonwealth. It means looking out for each other and safeguarding things like good-paying jobs or quality affordable education from pre-K to college. It means fighting together for our post-industrial cities, for workers, and for our suffering small towns so we can thrive and be proud of who we are.
Now is the time to work toward an agenda that tackles our biggest concerns and creates shared opportunity. Direct community involvement in the governing process is one way to do that, and I invite you to be a part of the new two-year legislative session in Massachusetts that begins in January 2017.
I am hosting a series of local community dialogues throughout the district called “Speak-Up Western Mass.” All are welcome and the goal is to advance an inclusive agenda that works for you and the region. The first Hampshire County gathering will be in Chesterfield, at 6 p.m. Dec. 13, at the Council on Aging, 400 Main Road.
I will continue the dialogue through regular virtual Town Halls on social media, local office hours and by building a proactive, responsive and engaged Senate team.
This process aims to ensure working families have a voice while we collectively develop a form of politics we can believe in and a vision for the region that accelerates growth. Throughout this campaign I argued that if we are to address the biggest challenges of our time, in this district, then we cannot afford to be divided.
We have an amazing region with tremendous individual, built and natural assets. It is a critical time to work arm-in-arm to create the region and political process that we can believe in and I hope you will be a part of it.
Adam Hinds is the state senator-elect for the Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden district, which includes Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Huntington, Middlefield, Plainfield, Westhampton, Williamsburg and Worthington in Hampshire County.