The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

My Turn

Lincoln Democrats reflect on state convention

By the Lincoln delegates and alternates to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention

It’s tough arranging an event with 1,000 people, bills to consider, amendments to write, votes to tally, and numerous speakers to be heard, but it happened. Last Saturday, Massachusetts Democrats held their annual convention — all on Zoom.

While it lacked the customary fervor and excitement generated by many kindred spirits gathered under one roof, it proceeded with near perfect technical implementation, and provided delegates an opportunity to see and hear crisp, often lively, compelling presentations.

Featured keynote speaker highlights:

  • Elizabeth Warren, praising the “resisters and persisters” gearing up for the “fierce fight ahead in Washington,” asserted that the door is open just a crack to make a more just nation that works for everyone. We must all join in the fight.
  • Ed Markey said the Green New Deal is an intergenerational contract to save the planet and we must be “big and bold,” pursuing not just what is politically possible, but that which is scientifically necessary. We have the choice now: it’s either filibuster or Democracy.
  • Attorney General Maura Healey asserted, “This is our moment to bring fundamental change” and noted that the Attorney General’s office is taking on the NRA, the state of Texas on abortion rights, and a variety of issues within Massachusetts around voting rights, systemic racism, and misogyny.
  • Secretary of State William Galvin emphasized that the voting rights temporarily expanded in the 2020 election must be made permanent.

Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Thompkins, a member of the Platform Committee, revealed a deft style and wit chairing the presentation of the Massachusetts Democratic Platform for 2021. Young Democrats, many representing communities of color, immigrants, and other disenfranchised groups, presented each of the 15 platform planks.

Unable to enjoy the usual convention chatter and exchange of ideas and viewpoints, Lincoln delegates to the convention have pooled our “takeaway” observations. Here are some of them:

  • The next generation of office holders and candidates — their origins, self-direction, and passion — are cause for optimism.
  • Climate change is widely regarded as the top issue, but there is lots of energy around voter rights, income inequality, women’s rights, racial disparities, and immigrants’ issues. And they are all interlinked in the Green New Deal.
  • Companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Doordash want to work in Massachusetts without obeying the fair labor laws and are putting lots of money ($100 million so far) money into lobbying for changes.
  • The filibuster must go now.
  • We loved the inclusiveness of the Democratic Party, hearing voices of all of us. 
  • Three engaging, thoughtful candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor — Professor Danielle Allen, former State Senator Ben Downing, and State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz — will nevertheless have a tough fight against potential candidate Maura Healey, should she decide to run.
  • The broad progressive platform reflects the diverse constituencies currently folding into the party but might benefit from a more focused, less “boil the ocean” approach.
  • Hurray for Elizabeth Warren’s energy, optimism, and tough willingness to meet any challenge head on. May we all reflect that in the upcoming months.

Submitted by Lincoln delegates and alternates to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention: Tom Casey, Andrew Glass, Joan Kimball, Travis Roland, Jackey Sasso, Barbara Slayter, Alex Chatfield, Lorraine Fiore, Steve Kropper, and Trish O’Hagan.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: Walk for the SVdP food pantry

By Ursula Nowak and Karen Salvucci

The Society of St Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston is devoted to assisting individuals and families in our communities who live in dire need due to unemployment, health issues, hunger, and the inability to meet even basic expenses. Over the past two years, more neighbors than ever before have reached out for our help, and the number of food pantry clients has almost doubled. Past support for our mission has enabled us to respond to these requests, but we now need your help to continue this vital work.

On Saturday, Sept. 25 at 9 a.m., SVdP is hosting an Every Mile Counts Walk to kick off our fundraising effort. This is an opportunity to walk together to show our commitment to our community and help us reach our goal of $40,000. Please join us by walking and/or donating to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston. We are neighbors helping neighbors.

To register for the Every Mile Counts Walk (followed by an ice cream social), click here. There is a suggested donation of $10 per person or $25 per family. To donate directly to SVdP of Lincoln and Weston, click here or mail your check (payable to St. Vincent de Paul) to SVdP, PO Box 324, Lincoln, MA 01773. Thank you!

Nowak is president and Salvucci is president-elect of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Lincoln and Weston.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: Blind spots, fear, and the “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

By Lawrence H. Climo, M.D.

I’ve been frustrated and angry for some time now — it’s July 2021 — over the crushing and inescapable toxicity of our political discourse, and I feel certain that my helplessness in this climate isn’t mine alone.

I know much has been written about the origins of this toxicity and not enough about a way out — an operational and viable way out. I haven’t come upon any, anyway. Recently I convinced myself I’ve been overlooking something in my efforts to find a realistic path to becoming unstuck. I’d overlooked a part of me, a part I wasn’t supposed to look at, that hiding place we call our blind spot. I’d searched enough into hopes, wishes, and dreams and came up with zip. I’d looked into my experiences with healing. Again, zip. This time I decided it was time to look into that place where things couldn’t be seen.

By “blind spot” I don’t mean a place we tune out. I mean the place where stuff gets blocked out of our awareness because it’s unbearable. Their downside is that they’re not under our control. (“Denial” is its other name but denial, unfortunately, has a bad reputation even though it buys time for continuing normal functioning until we feel ready to face… whatever.) Anyway, I’d come to think of blind spots as the place for temporary healing, as a sort of pre-programed field dressing or healing place instinctively applied when we’re blindsided with the unbearable. I should add that those dressings have a half-life. Over time they can seep into our awareness, in disguise of course. The disguise wasn’t a problem for me. I knew immediately the strategy to detect it.

I lay in wait and then grabbed hold of the first subtle and sneaky nervous symptom that entered my awareness. (I knew it would take that form. It had happened before.) Now relaxed and confident, I let myself play with that symptom. It wasn’t difficult to trace its roots.

Its roots weren’t any physical or mental traumatic event. They were nothing more than a vague sensation of discomfort that I’d routinely tuned out and that, over time, evolved into anxiety whereupon it became permanently blocked out. That anxiety had become FEAR.

Fears, of course, have no words. We give them words or names to enable us to grab and get a hold of that feeling and feel in control. This realization reminded me how difficult and misleading those sanity-saving words can be, and how difficult it can be to use them properly, let alone wisely. (Here, my story becomes more dicey.) The ways to articulate that “feeling” involves blending facts with fantasy. The upside is that our blend brings peace of mind. The downside: it brings peace of mind to us but, inasmuch as it’s including non-facts, the other guy becomes even more frightened.

The solution to my problem became clear. I’ll try to spell it out by beginning with this familiar toxic promoter. Republican leaders in Congress make the most of what they have, and do what it takes to pursue a political agenda promoting a diminished government presence. This is what politics is about and Democrats in Congress and their supporters know this. They know Republican leaders in Congress are not corrupt, in denial, or deranged, but simply playing the cards they’ve been dealt. That’s what parties do. But, to listen to Democrats and their supporters, you’d think they were unaware of any value to what Republicans in Congress seek.

The flip side, it seems, is equally true. Republicans in Congress and their supporters know that Democratic leaders in Congress are prioritizing their political agenda which features a more hands-on government. But, to listen to Republicans in Congress and their supporters, you’d think Republicans were unaware of any value for America to what Democrats seek.

It’s as if supporters of both parties are simultaneously ignoring the fact that our progress as a democratic nation rests on compromise, that fine-tuning process that creates a balance between differing visions of equal value. Unfortunately, pursuing and maintaining that balance has for some time now been unnecessarily and dramatically replaced by our persistent win-lose strategy.

From this perspective, I see no fault lying with the politicians, parties, supporters, the press, voters, or even foreign meddlers or imagined conspirators. The fault, as I’ve come to see it, lies with our singular common denominator, our national common denominator, our familiar and addictive American metaphor. I refer to our hierarchy-heavy metaphor that declares: we are Number One. We are the Greatest Country Ever. Think of it. This is the metaphor whose dramatic fight-to-win directive and right-wrong/winner-loser orientation, not to mention its stand-your-ground and stay-the-course endorsements, are as addictive as they are inspiring. That is the box we’re in. It’s a place of reassurance and empowerment, to be sure, and still a box, but the catch is that we don’t even know we’re in it, let alone stuck there. That, I believe, is because it feels too much like a noble mountaintop, a heroic place where we’re supposed to be. But, truth be told, it’s also the place we’re afraid to leave. Our toxic discourse is rooted in that fear.

As a result, instead of striving to recover a balance, we persist in losing our balance and tilting too far to one side. And, while we maintain the strength to resist being pushed all the way down, we’ve lost the strength to stand up straight.

I’m beginning to consider now that the good news is that we might be just one step from recovery. In the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson, it took only one onlooker, a small child, a voice of a future generation, to make that happen. He simply said the obvious — “the emperor is wearing no clothes” — and instantly, everyone was able to not only see this but to say so. And they did.

What if we, the majority of Americans, are like the crowd at that parade — reluctant to see inside our blind spots, but ready to? Unable to admit we’re no longer Number One, but ready to. Unwilling to confess we’re not the greatest country ever, but ready to. Unwilling to say we’ve done bad things but ready to? What if all that’s needed is for that majority of us to own up to all this, and what’s keeping us from doing that is fear of finding ourselves alone? What if that’s the big delay, the reason the toxicity persists — that we’re waiting for the other fellow to say it first? Let “Mikey” at the breakfast table, that innocent child, be the one to go viral. I’m thinking that’s what it will take.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: Former Selectmen endorse board’s name change

We, former members of the Lincoln Board of Selectmen, support the warrant article as written and endorsed unanimously by the current board:

MOTION under ARTICLE 24
Board of Selectmen / Citizens’ Petition

Moved: That the Town vote to amend the Town’s General and Zoning Bylaws to change the name of the Board of Selectmen to the “Select Board,” by striking out, in every instance in which they appear in reference to that body, the words “Board of Selectmen” or “Selectmen” and inserting in place thereof the words “Select Board”; and by striking out, in every instance in which they appear in reference to Board members, the word “Selectman” and “Selectmen” and inserting in place thereof the words “Select Board Member” or “Select Board Members”; and further to authorize the Town Clerk to make non-substantive, ministerial revisions to ensure that gender and numerical issues in related text is revised to properly reflect such change in title; provided, however, that regardless of such nomenclature, said board shall constitute a board of selectmen for purposes of the General Laws and of any special law applicable to the Town.

Respectfully,

Penny Billings
Peter Braun
Roz Delori
Noah Eckhouse
Renel Fredriksen
Sarah Cannon Holden
John Kerr
Sara Mattes
Kathy McHugh
Peter Sugar
Beth Ries
Gary Taylor

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: Chapman Field is getting a makeover

By Sara Lupkas

If you’ve walked through Chapman Pasture recently, you might have seen some changes — and you’ll see seeing some smoke there on Thursday as well.

Chapman Pasture is an eight-acre field located between Silver Hill Road and Old Winter Street. Formerly grazed by livestock, it’s now primarily characterized by non-native grasses. The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT) began a town-wide Pollinator Action Plan in 2020 with the goal of increasing pollinator habitat and biodiversity throughout Lincoln, and Chapman Pasture is one of the properties we’ve been focusing on. We recently received a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to help partially fund a restoration project on the field.

The goal of the project is to restore the native grasses and wildflowers to the meadow to create critical habitat for our native pollinator species, including threatened bees and butterflies, while maintaining the beautiful open character of the land.

LLCT has been collaborating with Dr. Robert Gegear from UMass–Dartmouth, who has been studying specific sites in Lincoln for pollinator populations, and Evan Abramson of Landscape Interactions, who drafted our Pollinator Action Plan. Earlier this spring, a USFWS contractor removed invasive plants around the edges of Chapman Pasture, and Lincoln Conservation Department and LLCT staff worked collaboratively to remove nearly 1,000 feet of linear fencing from the pasture edges.

The next step is a prescribed burn of the field to remove the non-native grasses scheduled for Thursday, May 13. With assistance from USFWS, LLCT commissioned a certified burn plan and hired a professional burn crew with expertise in prescribed burns. All activities related to the burn have been approved by USFWS, the professional burn crew from New Jersey, and the Lincoln Fire Department.

Following the burn, LLCT will undertake a replanting of the field (likely this fall) with native grasses and forbs, and then will begin a mowing and maintenance regime to encourage native plant species and to eliminate encroachment of invasive species from field edges.

We are excited about this great opportunity to develop and implement an innovative and productive long-term management plan for the field that will enhance the natural beauty and biodiversity of the field.

More information about the plan for Chapman Pasture can be found in the Lincoln Pollinator Action Plan. Within that document is this Chapman Pasture-specific toolkit.

Lupkas is the Stewardship Director for the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: Vote yes on plastics-ban articles at Town Meeting

By Trisha O’Hagan

Lincoln has an exciting opportunity on May 15­ at our annual Town Meeting to drastically reduce our reliance on single-use plastics.

The Lincoln-Sudbury Environmental Club and Mothers Out Front–Lincoln have submitted articles proposing Styrofoam, polystyrene, and plastic straw bans. From start to finish, these plastics pollute our air, water, land, and bodies, and once created they never go away.

There is also an article calling for a 10-cent checkout bag charge to encourage the use of reusable bags over single-use paper bags. 

Lincoln has no ability to recycle Styrofoam. It goes into our trash and is incinerated in North Andover, Mass. These incinerators, while producing some electricity, also pollute their nearby communities with dioxins, mercury, and other contaminants. And disproportionally, these incinerators are located in environmental justice communities.

Lincoln would join 51 other Massachusetts cities and towns in banning polystyrene (including our neighbors in Sudbury, Wayland, Concord, and Lexington). Hopefully, as more towns pass these bans, it will apply pressure to our state legislature to pass statewide bans.

We need your help! Please attend Town Meeting and support these articles. 

Join with others working towards sustainable/zero waste policies for our town. This Town of Lincoln website has a full presentation of the articles, or contact Trisha O’Hagan at PMOKiwi@comcast.net for more information. Thank you.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: A welcome language update

By Kim Bodnar, Jennifer Glass, Emily Haslett, Sarah Cannon Holden, Stuart Rose, Ellen Meyer Shorb, and Peter von Mertens

At the upcoming Annual Town Meeting on May 15, we have an opportunity to catch up with the times (and many of our neighboring towns!) by voting to change the name of the Board of Selectmen to the Select Board. Additionally, passing Article #24 will authorize clerical updates to ensure town bylaws and policies are gender-neutral.

When Lincoln held its first town meeting in 1754, only men could vote and five men were chosen to serve as the Board of Selectmen. Over 220 years later, in 1977, Beth Reis was the first woman elected to the board, and since then, an additional nine women have served. We believe the time has come to make sure the name of the board welcomes all residents, regardless of gender identity, to see themselves reflected in this visible role in town government

At least 93 towns have changed to the gender-neutral name “Select Board,” including our neighbors in Sudbury, Concord, Weston, Lexington, Bedford, and Wayland. In 2020, the Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association voted to become the Massachusetts Select Board Association.

Last year, we filed a citizens’ petition to change the name of the board, but it was removed from the warrant when, due to COVID-19, town meeting was limited to financial articles. As we bring the petition forward again this year, we are pleased that it is being jointly sponsored by the Board of Selectmen and our citizen’s group.  

Please join us in taking this step to make town government a welcoming place for all!

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: All those eligible should get the Covid-19 vaccination

By Chris Eliot

While many Americans have now been vaccinated against Covid-19, it is critical to vaccinate everyone who is medically eligible. Most estimates indicate 60-70% of the population must be vaccinated to reach herd immunity. Historically, approximately 10-15% of the population cannot take a vaccine for medical reasons. There is no approved vaccine for children, which are about 20% of the population. Adding up these numbers leaves no room for anyone to choose not to get the vaccine.

I am in favor of making the vaccine mandatory, but there are many prior steps that can be taken. We should create a shared incentive to get vaccinated by connecting relaxation of social distancing restrictions directly to vaccination rates. Currently, there is a highly opaque political process for deciding when to open up theaters, restaurants, and other areas, and this strange system does little to really encourage public acceptance of vaccination.

Instead, there should be specific advertised policy changes tied numerically to local vaccination rates. For example, when 50% of the medically eligible population in a community is vaccinated, there should be no requirement to wear masks outside. When 60% of the medically eligible population in a community is vaccinated, more businesses should be open at higher levels. The restrictions should be lifted in increments as 70%, 80%, 90%, and 95% of the medically eligible population of a community are vaccinated. This process would directly connect everyone’s contribution to public health measures to a tangible set of rewards. People would have a chance to take specific actions to achieve the common goals, empowering the population.

I believe this kind of measure is necessary for us to reach full vaccination and end the Covid pandemic.

Eliot is a computer scientist with a background in medical teaching software and chair of the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

This may be a bad year for Lyme disease

By Rhea Karty

(Editor’s note: Karty, a Lincoln resident, is a senior at Lincoln-Sudbury who has always been interested in biology, particularly diseases and ecology. “After taking biology and AP biology, I wanted to continue to broaden my understanding and look into some practical applications,” she said. “Lyme disease was really meaningful to me because many of my friends and coaches from cross-country and school have had scary experiences with it. So I worked with my former biology teacher (Ms. Shopiro) to develop an independent study curriculum where I studied the ecology, immune response, treatments, and microbiology of Lyme, and I interviewed some doctors and community members. Now I’m doing some projects to spread awareness.”

Acorns and mice and ticks — oh my!

With the onset of spring comes the bane of New England: Lyme disease. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, other diseases may have slipped off our radar, but Mother Nature is not so quick to give us a break. In fact, there may be a significant uptick in Lyme disease cases this year due to a bumper crop of acorns.

Oak trees operate in cycles: they naturally have years where they produce blankets of acorns and others where they have very few. As you may have noticed, 2019 was a particularly plentiful year for acorns in suburban New England, called a mast crop These blankets of acorns are great for wildlife and rodents, but also provide a building block for Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is caused by bacteria and is transmitted to humans through the bite of black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis), sometimes known as deer ticks. The ticks pick it up from mice and other small rodents that are already infected with the bacteria.

Ticks feed three times in their life. In their larval stage just after they hatch from eggs, they bite and drink the blood of mice and small rodents. This is when they potentially become infected with Lyme disease. (Surprisingly, even though they are called deer ticks, they don’t actually get Lyme disease from deer.) Once a tick picks up Lyme disease, it will carry it for the rest of its life and is able to transmit it to humans.

In the next two years of a tick’s life, it will bite once or twice more. This is when humans can get the disease.

Our ecosystem operates in harmony, where changes in one section cascade to other areas. The plethora of acorns from the mast year provides plenty of food for the rodent population, which will then cause a higher population of infected ticks for the next one to two years, so, the acorn mast year in 2019 will be felt this year with increased ticks.

An illustration of how Lyme disease is transmitted between species (click to enlarge). Image courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

With indoor restrictions on gatherings still in place, we’re all hoping for an active outdoor spring. However, as kids go outside to play and families begin to start biking and walking in the woods, we should be aware that Lyme disease will be particularly bad this year and must keep an eye out for the symptoms. Here are a few things you can do to stay protected:

Dress — wear light-colored clothes, long pants, high socks, and bug spray, especially when venturing off trail.

Environment — Consider spraying for ticks or other remedies like tick tubes, essential oils, chickens, keeping deer out of your yard, maintaining a well-kept yard, and staying away from the edge of the woods.

Awareness — check for ticks after going outside. If a tick is pulled out within a short period of time, Lyme disease may be avoided. Make sure you have all the parts of the tick, including the eight legs and head.

If Lyme disease is caught and treated early, the worst effects can be prevented with antibiotics, so keep an eye out and be prepared. For more information about Lyme disease and symptoms, visit www.cdc.gov/lyme or www.mass.gov/service-details/lyme-disease.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

My Turn: On the journey towards an antiracist school district

By Becky McFall, Jessica Rose, and Marika Hamilton

Yesterday’s announcement of the verdicts in the Derek Chauvin trial provided validation of the discrimination and injustices that Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in our country have experienced their entire lives. George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police officers was determined to be a crime by our justice system and Derek Chauvin will be held accountable. George Floyd’s murder and the Chauvin trial mark a turning point in our country. These are moments that communicate to the nation that we can never again turn a blind eye to the injustice and discrimination that exists for members of our BIPOC community.

The verdicts handed down yesterday are not an end to a single horrific incident but a beginning of continuing to work to ensure that no more lives are unnecessarily lost due to the inherent racism that exists in so many systems in our country and around the world. They are also a reminder that we cannot afford to be silent or wait until we are comfortable talking about the reality of institutional and systemic racism.

While Chauvin will be held accountable, it is not the same as having justice. In order for justice to occur, our entire country and its many systems — including education, policing, court systems, banking, real estate, medical, employment and so much more — need to transform. As Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. said, “We must understand that justice is a practice, not an end.” There is so much work ahead of us, and George Floyd and countless others will not be with us as we take our next steps.

Police brutality is an outright reflection that racism still exists in our society. This violence has caused many members of the BIPOC community to suffer deep loss and to consistently be victims of marginalization, oppression, racial profiling, and acts of discrimination. We must unite to oppose and dismantle racism and discrimination in all its forms.

It is not enough to say we stand united; we must follow through in action. Just as Chauvin’s verdict was being announced, a 15-year old girl in Columbus, Ohio was shot and killed by police. During these turbulent times where each day we learn of more young people of color who have died, we must engage in self-reflection, educate ourselves, and deepen our commitment  to antiracism. We must learn to believe and act in ways that demonstrate that an injustice towards one is an injustice toward all and that our freedom, our thriving, and our happiness is intertwined. 

We must prepare our students for an increasingly complex world, and this will take all of us working together. It is critical that we learn from our history and experiences as well as the experiences of those whose cultures, values, beliefs, and views are different from our own. We must strive to become more empathic and more compassionate every day. We each have an important role to play in creating a community, a country, and a world that values and honors each individual for who they are and who they may become.

For too long, discrimination and racism have resulted in the the squandering of human potential and the oppression of many in order to maintain the privilege of a dominant culture. As educators, we have an obligation to continue to learn and reflect on how our school systems and interactions with students perpetuate the status quo.

As a district, we have begun our journey of reflection and learning in order to become an antiracist school district. There is a great deal of important work ahead of us. It will not be easy, and as we move forward, there will certainly be points along the way where we will stumble. But each misstep is a moment that provides great potential for learning. Let us remember to give each other grace as we stumble and learn together.

We are hopeful for the future. The veil has been lifted and it has admitted light that can never be darkened again. We look forward to the actions our district and our community members will take together to make the world a better place for our students and ourselves.

Becky McFall, Lincoln Public School Superintendent
Jessica Rose, Assistant Superintendent
Marika Hamilton, METCO Director

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.