(Editor’s note: This event, which can be viewed online here, was organized by the Lincoln Diversity Committee, which includes writer Sharon Antia.)

To the editor:

At the “Discovering Diversity in Lincoln” event on May 2, much of what our panelists had to say was new to those in the audience and in fact quite eye-opening. About 80 people heard the panelists — Police Chief Kevin Kennedy, School Superintendent Becky McFall, First Parish Senior Minister Manish Mishra-Marzetti, Domestic Violence Services Network Executive Director Jacquelin Apsler and Council on Aging Director Carolyn Bottom — provide an overview of the work they do and some of the needs they see in Lincoln.

Our beautiful town has a rich and varied membership that includes people from a wide variety of backgrounds, gifts and challenges. It was gratifying to learn that one of our many gifts is the wisdom and compassion to help those in our community when they are in need. As Carolyn said, “We are not giving charity, we are not giving to people. We are enabling people to stay in our community who we really need in our community… we are lucky to have them.”

The second half of the evening was given over to the audience, and while participation started a little slowly (I know, surprising for Lincoln), by the time the hour was over, I had to wrestle back control of the microphone to call it a night!

People in attendance were honestly interested in hearing what was said. There were moments when quite heartfelt comments and concerns were raised and it was an honor to be in a room where folks felt safe enough to speak their truth. People shared experiences as low-income residents of our town, Native American, gay, young and worried for the future and having young children and wishing for grandparents to help guide them. We were not there to “solve” anything, and we did not make the attempt. What we did was try our best to provide a venue for all of us to begin to know the people in our neighborhood, and we all agreed it was a good first step.

There was some concern that the majority of the audience was “of a certain age” and not as representative of the town as we may have liked. We struggle with how to reach out to the people that were not there. It was suggested that perhaps, as Rev. Manish pointed out, what works for the people in the audience may not work for the people at home, and one of our jobs is to find out how to engage them.

This meeting was the first of what the newly forming Lincoln Diversity Committee hopes will be many ongoing conversations and activities designed to help all of us better support one another. We are not looking to change the makeup of our community and we certainly do we want to decide who should live here. We believe those of us living here are the people who should be here, and our charge is to ensure they, you, me and we all feel welcome and empowered to be our best selves.

As we wrapped up the evening’s events, many of the attendees stayed and talked for up to another 45 minutes. The sense that we are building community was palpable and people were excited to share their thoughts. We plan to have more of these conversations and hope even more people will be able to join us. Stay tuned and thank you to everyone that came.

Sincerely

Sharon Antia
165 South Great Rd.

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.