Mr. Scalia;
My email was intended to bring attention to the committee of an editorial in a well respected local newspaper. I doubt that many of our members subscribe to the Free Press or the Citizen and as such should be made aware of a point of view that could gather traction in the days to come if attention to the concerns contained therein is not seriously addressed.
This editorial should serve as food for thought as we undertake the task of
defining what is meant by “quality of life in Monroe.” For the African American community and other ethnic conclaves of color, a responsive and proactive elected and appointed leadership would find the concerns of the papers’ editor as one benchmark in developing specific tools to gauge the accomplishments of our efforts.
My comments were not complaints about the current administration but a notice that proceeding with blinders to the steep stairs ahead of us as a community and committee would be too costly.
As a committee, I suspect we are expected to bring to the table an honest assessment of our differing versions of how to interpret and set in place actions that become improvements in the quality of life in Monroe.
The zoo does not rank as high among many of the ethnic communities as evidence of a community’s value system. Many of us who were born in Monroe and participated in struggles for equity and parity in the 60’s view appointments to senior executive leadership positions, equitable representation on boards and commissions, a careful review and modifications to the city charter, sidewalks in areas of the community where “walking to and from” is a fact of life, covered bus stops and routes that lead one through the city and not just to domestic work on the north side, full and sustained economic support of the North Delta African American Museum, the creation of empowerment zones that have at their foundation, multifaceted economic anchors, resisting locating subsidized housing adjacent to railroad tracks and along large ditches, the encouragement of loans and grants to support Minority businesses, revisiting property zoning to promote neighborhood expansion to counter “redlining”, and lastly, the creation of policies, procedures and councilmanic instruments that give a greater weight to a community’s voice when expansions to routes to and from the city are under consideration.
Our committee has a tall order to fill – determining what values will be sustained as a new administration charts a course for change. It’s going to be a difficult process filled with pitfalls and naysayers but remains an invaluable exercise in democracy.
Rome surely was not built in a day, but Troy was destroyed in one day. Let’s not take a leap of faith without preparing for a soft landing – trust but verify.
Victor
