 Um, I see that we have a quorum and, uh, and so I am going to both welcome everybody back. It's good to see, uh, so many of you, even if I am not seeing you in person, but, um, there's been a lot going on and since we have been unable to meet because of, uh, the COVID pandemic and then we are also responding to other, um, well, let's, I'll refer to it as a pandemic as well, right, uh, when we're dealing with questions of, of, um, public health and safety. And then one of the questions of public safety is of course, um, how people relate with each other, um, as we are going through our daily lives. And if it's unsafe for us to, uh, be able to go out and to live our normal lives, then it is very hard for us to, um, to deal with each other on a day-to-day basis. And that's part of what, um, we as a country have been dealing with. And, uh, for, for those of you who have friends in other places, um, you know, outside of Amherst, outside of the U.S., um, you know, I have friends who are contacting me from around the globe who are saying, um, how horrific it must be to be in the United States at this moment. Um, I don't know that it is terribly different than it would normally be, but let's, let's, uh, go on from, from that. Um, I hope you've all had a chance to take a look at the agenda, um, and, uh, had a chance to review it. Um, and if there were any comments with regard to it, uh, we did not put on here a, um, a review of the minutes from our February meeting. It's been, it's been a good long while, um, since we've been together. And that would probably be a good thing to have done, but, uh, I don't have that information right now with me. And I didn't think about it until of course I got into meeting mode. And all of a sudden said, Hey, that's something we would normally take care of right at the beginning of the meeting. Um, but that said, uh, you will see, we have a pretty full agenda, um, and, uh, and therefore I want to give us a chance to, uh, to get to it, um, before we get to the agenda, I first, um, want to make sure that there is nothing, uh, on the agenda that you have, uh, questions about. Obviously we're going to talk through, uh, the issues on there. I believe that we are starting off when we get to action discussion items with some of the, uh, the matters that will involve some of the attendees who, um, will want to speak on, uh, questions relating to, uh, the civil war plaques, uh, Juneteenth, uh, other events that we have coming up like the Frederick Douglass speech, um, as well as, uh, the wage, uh, bylaw proposal and the non-discrimination statement, uh, proposal. So we have a number of people who are, uh, calling in who will be participating, uh, but I want to open it to public comment first, unless any of the commissioners have something that they, uh, would want to speak to with regard to additions to the agenda. Uh, Gezi Haya. I just wanted to make sure who's taking, um, the minute or the note. That's a great question. Okay. Thank you, Deborah. Thank you, Deborah. I just, I, I only remembered after you began talking, like sort of three or four minutes into it, like, oh my God, I'm supposed to be taking notes. It's been months. But I think I got it all. Okay. Great. Well, thank you. Um, other statements or, um, remarks with regard to, uh, things that, that, um, may have been errors on the agenda, anything like that before we open it up to public comment for, uh, a five minute period. I just wanted to also make sure, I think there's one participant who's calling in by phone and there's a specific way to like raise a hand. It's star nine. Okay. Um, so I know that Tracy wanted to speak under the public comment in regards to the resolution. So if you guys are ready for that, that would be fine. That is, uh, with regard to the, uh, non-discrimination statement. Um, and so if, if, uh, Tracy Zafian is interested in speaking, would be, uh, excited to hear. Um, can I also just ask for Tracy to spell her name? Oh, there it is. Okay. Got it. Hi. So I don't know. I don't see my picture, but you can hear me. Yes, we can. Excellent. Oh, and, um, okay. So, um, my name is Tracy Zafian. I'm a 20 year resident of Amherst. I live in the center of Amherst, uh, precinct for district three and I work at UMass. Um, and so I had been in touch with the chair and Jennifer a little bit before the meeting about a resolution that I've been working on with somebody else relating to, um, anti-Asian discrimination and harassments. Um, that's something that we've been working on for a little while, um, since like the, you know, starting in April, but I haven't been talked about earlier. Um, Northampton just passed a similar resolution and there's also once before the U.S. Congress with both the house and the Senate. Um, and it really came out of, you know, the conversations that we were having before like all these recent incidents. Um, but they do relate back to the, um, like what's going on politically in this country in terms of blaming others, you know, blaming people of different color, blaming people of different race, ethnicity, immigrants, and so on. And so, um, it was just designed to, um, you know, to just reiterate that we're welcoming inclusive community and that those types of incidents aren't okay in our community. Um, you know, there have been a few, um, high-profile incidents in Amherst like including there was the PBTA bus incident in January where there were graduate students who were, you know, yelled at for speaking Chinese. Um, you know, there's also recently, I mean, I know that I was definitely thinking a lot more about the resolution after there was a like a pro Trump rally, which they had called the Chinese virus, uh, freedom rally or something, you know, by some supporter over in Northampton. So I mean, that stuff is just really offensive language and it really sets the tone. Dr. Franklin Odo who lives in Amherst as well. And he's a Amherst college professor. He also has a big history, um, of doing. I know he'd been in the Smithsonian, um, looking at Asian American history and so on. And, um, you know, he reports an incident where a student of his like felt so in stuff in Amherst that there were three different incidents that this Amherst college student experienced. And even though she had asked to stay on campus for the spring semester, she ended up leaving because she just felt so unsafe in Amherst. Um, so I was just coming with, you know, because this really falls under a lot of the types of things that the Human Rights Commission looks at, um, we wanted, I didn't know whether the Human Rights Commission would be meeting. Like I know in Northampton, it didn't go to the Human Rights Commission because they weren't meeting because of coronavirus. Um, but we wanted to share it with you and get feedback if you had any. And then it would also go to the JOL, the GOL of the town council, the governance organization legislation, um, subcommittee, and then go to the council for a vote. And in, in Northampton, it passed anonymously, unanimously. Sorry. So, um, if there's any comments or questions, I'm happy to try to answer them. Thank you so much, Tracy. I'm wondering if we can share screen on the statement. Um, so I, I can try. Here, let me try and give her permission. Sorry. I'm being, the dog is trying to, so Tracy, does it give you the chance to do it now? So it says, okay, her long share screen. Yeah. So can you see my screen then? Hold on. No. Okay. It just told me to share. It gives me a little, I'm trying to share the screen. Oh, hold on. Let me see if I can. Okay. Here it is. Okay. Can you see it now? Yes. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, um, the language in this resolution, I mean, it could be tightened up a little, but I maced it mainly on the Northampton one. It was just, you know, reiterating Amherst's history of looking at these issues, um, and some of the negative language, you know, that's been used with Asian Americans. And I'm trying to scroll down. Hold on. I don't know if it's going to let me. And then, you know, just in terms of actions that could be taken in Amherst's to, you know, make the statement. And, um, I mean, it's really about statements at this point, you know, in terms of, you know, recognizing the standing with the community and condemning all anti-Asian racism, um, and sharing it with, um, you know, our congresspeople, our state reps and senators, as well as the people in Congress who both have been advocating for the same, um, resolutions. Um, I mean, I will say that, you know, in writing it, I think, and this conversation came up a little bit at the council meeting on Monday, is that I really see these types of resolutions just like the resolution related to George Floyd as like starting places and not an ending place, right? It's just to reiterate and set the stage and then to also come up with some more concrete actions to support these members of our community. So I had sent a PDF of the, um, the resolution to the chair as well as to Jennifer. So I mean, they could email that around if that's something that people want to look at. Or I could send it again. Well, no, I did, I did send it out. Okay. Yeah, that has been shared, um, with the commissioners for purposes of just knowing, um, what, what we would be discussing tonight, not necessarily for us to approve it per se, um, tonight, because, uh, obviously we, uh, are in a position where we could, um, I think we can certainly discuss it and this is our first time meeting, of course, since February. And so, uh, we haven't had a chance to discuss what process we would follow for this kind of statement. But, um, you know, I think it probably would go without saying that the Human Rights Commission is, um, is supportive of anything that, uh, would work against discrimination and against, uh, racial, ethnic, uh, other animus against any group within the town of Amherst and more broadly. So, um, so thank you for, um, for speaking on that. We are going to speak to it further, um, as an agenda item in just a little bit. But we have to, uh, allow for, um, if there's any other public comment. But, um, but thank you for the introduction. I think it's incredibly helpful for you to, to, um, to describe exactly the intent and a little bit of the history of where this, this is coming from. Right. Yeah. Thank you very much. Are there other, uh, others who want to, uh, speak during our public comment period? Um, can Tracy stop sharing her screen because I can't get back to my Word document. Yeah. Yeah, there we go. There we go. Thank you. She actually said, I think that she had to leave. Um, is she still there? Are you still there, Tracy? Yeah, um, I can stand for a little while. I mean, if you, I mean, I guess a big question, I mean, just in terms of the process of this is if, if the, if the Human Rights Commission Please continue. Um, if the Human Rights Commission wants to, like, take any official vote or anything on it. Um, because, you know, as I was saying, after this step, it would go to the JOL and then it would go to the council. I know the JOL meets just like twice a month or so. So, um, just in terms of, you know, whether it's a statement that we want to, I mean, I know that the statement that was made about George Floyd, um, by the council the other day, you know, it just came right out of the council. It came right from the counselors. It didn't go through like the standard procedures in terms of, and I think that that's appropriate. Um, it's just, you know, do we want to try to pass something in June or July or whenever, right? So that's just something on my mind a little bit. Well, you know, I can just say first off that, um, a number of us, um, just talking with other individuals have been aware of this, uh, this issue. And, um, I don't think anyone appreciates any type of, um, of animus of, of hate, um, of disparagement of a group for no reason other than to score points with a political base. Now, again, we are an apolitical body ourselves, um, while we do, um, represent that the town of Amherst in looking at these issues, we don't come at it from, uh, supporting a political party or, um, or going against a particular, uh, individual as horrific as that person, um, or people, uh, might be in a particular circumstance. Um, but I, I will say that, um, again, we have it a little bit later down on, on the agenda. I think it's great during public comment for, especially if you can't stay for, for the entirety of the meeting and, and, uh, wouldn't be available later. Um, it, it's good for us to hear from you. As far as a vote, I, I think we would need to look at, uh, what we would be asked to do. Um, I think it's more likely that we would get a sense of the Human Rights Commission and, um, might express our approval for the, um, the premise of the document that is, that we would express, uh, support for anti-discrimination, uh, which is what our role is in any event. So, um, and we could express that, uh, in some manner whether it's, uh, perhaps sending a representative to speak when a, a committee is hearings, uh, something on this issue or whether it is just making a, uh, general written statement in support. Um, but that would likely be the, the next step coming from us, um, it would just be some type of show of support for the statement. Um, but I, I'd need to hear from everybody else before we figure out exactly what that would look like. Absolutely. Well, thank you very much. Um, I was nodding my head the whole time, but I'm not on screen, so thank you. Well, thank you. Um, I have to ask if there's anyone else that who, uh, wanted to speak during the public comment period. I know that we have, uh, Dr. D. Shabazz and Dr. Amilkar Shabazz, uh, and others, uh, as speakers when we are looking at the Civil War plaques in Juneteenth. Um, so I would not ask you to speak at this point because you're, you're going to be speaking on the agenda in a few minutes. Um, but is there anyone else who wanted to speak during public comment? I did hear that there, I got a text of somebody else is trying to speak on this during public comment. Yeah, MP. Who's MP? Um, her name is Megan Peck and she's, um, she's, so go ahead and you can let her speak. Yes, please. Hi, could everyone hear me? Yes. Hi, um, I just, uh, stumbled upon this meeting and I'm a, my name is Megan Peck. I'm actually a resident of Northampton and a member of the Human Rights Commission there. And, um, I'm here to hopefully, um, say a few words about, um, how our resolution, um, came to being, um, I've worked with a couple of our city counselors on the drafting of this. I am myself a member of the AAPI group and, um, I, there were two counselors who were, who were interested in this issue following some informal, uh, reports of harassment downtown of people who appeared at AAPI. Um, and this was shortly before the MAGA rally was, um, scheduled to take place in Northampton. Um, so I just wanted to add that, um, to also acknowledge that we are clearly living in time with so many other, so many other priorities and so many other abuses and hurt upon many other minority groups and particular, um, Black Americans. And this, having, putting forward this resolution, I hope in no way negates our recognition of that and it's simply, um, the opportunity was presented to us and I wanted to, um, as a representative of the Human Rights Commission and a member of this group, um, um, give it my personal support. Um, so I, um, I would like, it is clearly a small local action and, um, you know, for us in Northampton resolutions are really just a statement, a restatement of our values as a community. So, um, thank you for your time, um, and, um, thank you to Tracy Zafian for, um, letting me know about this meeting. Thank you very much, uh, and I, I do think it is helpful to sometimes repeat, um, perspectives across, uh, different communities. Um, I, many years ago, um, worked in, uh, communications on AIDS policy, uh, in the, as an intern in the Clinton administration, um, and, uh, before that was, was a page in the House of Representatives and one of the things that I had the opportunity to see was the collection of communications from all around the country of people wanting to speak on a particular issue and, um, and just people keeping track of, uh, how many people from different communities care about an issue, want to speak on it and believe that their representatives should speak, uh, on those issues. So, I think, uh, Amherst doing something in this vein, uh, as Northampton has, uh, would be the, the one way of saying that we as a community believe that, um, discrimination against Asian American Pacific Islanders, uh, and others during this period of time is, uh, incredibly problematic and, and we certainly would demand of our leaders that they be aware of it and respond to it. Um, so again, we're going to speak to that, uh, more in a few minutes, figure out exactly how we, as a commission, would want to respond and what that response would look like. Um, we are almost 16 minutes into a, uh, five minute public comment period. So, I'm going to, um, close the public comment period so that we can move on to the items that are on our agenda so that we are actually able, uh, to get to those items. But I want to thank, uh, both of the speakers in the public comment period for, uh, for presenting on, on that particular item. And I think that will inform some of our discussion around it later. Um, let's move on and let's start off, uh, with the Civil War plex and the Juneteenth, uh, discussion. So, um, I believe that, um, we have a number of individuals who want to speak on that. And I don't know if you have a way that you wanted to, uh, speak, uh, but, or an order in which to speak, but if we could hear, uh, on the, those topics now, I would love to hear from them. Uh, Dr. Shabazz. Hi, so this is Dr. Demetria Shabazz, or D. Shabazz, uh, as opposed to a Milcar Shabazz, the other doctor. Uh, you know, I'm, I'm not certain how, uh, much folks know about Juneteenth. And so I first wanted to just give a brief, real quick description of historically what Juneteenth is. And then, um, just real quick, uh, let you know, uh, the history of celebrating it here in the town. And then, uh, Dr. Milcar Shabazz will, uh, talk about, uh, why we're meeting with you all about Juneteenth. And then how that is important in terms of framing the history, uh, and celebrating the history, local history with the plaques. Okay. So thank you, uh, first off for, um, uh, allowing us to speak with you all. Um, and, um, real quick, Juneteenth is, um, something that's very, uh, personal to me as well as, um, I think a lot of African-Americans, uh, here and nationwide. I actually am from Galveston, Texas, where Juneteenth, um, in a way, first originated. Um, it was announced in 1865 by General Granger in Galveston that, um, we were emancipated as enslaved, uh, African people. And, um, this was something really significant in terms of there was not a national, uh, celebration, so to speak, uh, that, uh, was, was created in order to recognize and celebrate our emancipation. And so at the, after this 1865 announcement, people started slowly creating their own celebrations within particularly the state of Texas. And so Galveston, uh, Houston, Texas, um, this became something that folks did yearly. My husband and I are both from Texas. He's from Beaumont. I'm from Galveston. And we celebrated this, um, this event, um, as a family, as a community. And when we moved here 13 years ago, um, we, uh, ended up, uh, I guess, finding, so to speak, the family of Vera Cage, uh, and Ed Cage. And they were celebrating, um, creating a Juneteenth celebration. And so we joined with them along with other community members to now yearly recognize, um, this particular, uh, historical event. And to kind of celebrate it like our, our fourth of July, so to speak. Um, so, um, I wanted to first let you all kind of know the history of that, that we have been celebrating this. Um, it's been getting bigger each year. And we don't want to stop it, I guess, because of the quarantine and the COVID. I think in many ways we need Juneteenth, um, we need Juneteenth now more than ever. Um, and so I want to now, I guess, pass it to my, my partner here, uh, the other doctor, and then he'll, uh, talk a bit about the history. Thank you. Um, so 10 years ago, uh, Juneteenth was started here in the valley here in, um, Amherst by Ed Cage and, uh, Vera Cage and others who worked with them. Um, it was held at Groff Park. Um, I went out there. In fact, I believe that's where I first met the, met the cages. And, um, then we joined with them after that in, uh, 2011, 2012. Um, and as Dia said, each year it got a, got significantly bigger. Um, I think from the 2012 event, um, Reynolds, um, Winslow, um, had, uh, participated or come out and, and so when we were planning the 2013 and we had requested the, the Amherst commons right off, right across from the, from Town Hall, um, and, uh, we were getting started on that. Um, the, uh, we met with this body with the Human Rights Commission and, um, uh, discussed joining, joining forces. And, um, Reynolds, uh, Winslow, who had been a commission member since 1999, um, was, um, saying that they, that given the timing of the 19th of June, it would be perfect for them to, uh, join with us in holding their, um, uh, the, the commission's, uh, recognition of, uh, graduating high school, well, elementary age all the way to, to graduating high school seniors. Um, and, um, and so we, we met, um, down at the bangs and, uh, we discussed this and, uh, was agreed to work together. And, uh, and so on that day on 2013, we called it the Juneteenth Jamboree. We had a lot of live music. We had dance performances. We had, uh, jazz, uh, ensemble, um, various speakers. Uh, it was, uh, it was quite a, quite a, quite a nice event. But then it shifted at a certain point and it went into the awards recognition, 11 students, uh, who had been nominated by their teachers, received awards. And so the, the commission sort of took over that part in doing that. And then we closed out. We, or whatever reasons, didn't necessarily, um, repeat on that every year. Um, and, uh, we've moved around from different places. Last year we returned to Groff Park and, um, we had the support of, uh, UMass, uh, to provide food. They brought out, uh, uh, their, their chefs came and provided food for everyone. Um, we had African drumming and dancing. Um, it was a really nice event. Yeah. But this year, as Diaz said, in light of everything, we've, we've gone in a different direction, but we come to you tonight to again ask for your co, uh, co-sponsorship and collaboration, uh, with us. And, um, we think it's consistent with the articles, article one, two, and three of the, of the, uh, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which with, with its stress on freedom of all human beings, but also article 27, which, uh, uh, everyone has the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community to enjoy the arts and share in scientific advancements and its benefits. So in that regards, then what we've planned, um, the, um, uh, with the town, um, we're going to tape, um, someone speaking the proclamation that, uh, that they've, um, they've put, actually a correction. It was two years ago we were at Groff. Last year we started at the steps of Town Hall and went from Town Hall to Jones Library and we were in the Woodbury room. That's right. And, um, but, uh, uh, and that was the first year we had a full-blown proclamation. We have another one that's, um, for this year and we want to tape someone from the town, um, uh, reading the, um, proclamation and, uh, and we'll tape the ringing of the bells. And then on the 19th itself, we'll air this. Samus Media, um, we've agreed, as agreed to air, um, uh, our special Juneteenth program live. It'll be on channel 12. It'll start at, um, four o'clock and, um, and we'll have, uh, expressions about Juneteenth, uh, about its history here in the area, um, and, um, and its meaning. And then at 430 though, we will shift into a Zoom, uh, discussion of a new book by a, um, a former resident of Amherst, a native who graduated from Amherst Regional High School. His name is, uh, like, uh, like Petua is at Amherst Regional High School. This gentleman, uh, William, uh, Darity Jr. attended all four years and graduated. Um, and, um, he, along with his partner, Kirsten Mullen, have written a new book called From Here to Equality, um, Black Americans and, uh, Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century. It's published by the University of North Carolina Press and, um, uh, a group of us within, uh, the, the Group Bridge for Unity have, uh, have read it. We've been discussing it and we will lead a conversation, uh, from 430 to 530 on this new important book. And, uh, we're happy to say that we believe, uh, Dr. Darity and, uh, and, uh, his wife, Kirsten Mullen, will join us, um, in that, uh, conversation on that important book. So, uh, again, just really the ask here is, uh, twofold. One, uh, listing you again as a, uh, a cosponsor. And two, um, suggesting that, um, uh, this idea had come up that, uh, since you all will not be doing your picnic, uh, event and if there's budget for it, that you might consider purchasing copies of From Here to Equality and, uh, making it available to, uh, members of, uh, of town government and, and, uh, in yourselves, um, the, um, the, uh, the Darity and Mullen are joining us without taking any sort of honorarium for doing so. Um, but they did ask if it would be possible that, uh, the town, uh, would, uh, would purchase copies and, and try to, you know, stimulate readership, you know, beyond just one copy of Jones Library. But, uh, you know, get copies and, and read it and discuss it. So, can I just, um, chime in for a second? So, we will be purchasing 22 books, I believe, if not 20, maybe it's 25. So, one will go to the library, one will go to each commission member and one will go to each counselor. Great. Great, thank you. Yeah. So, that's, uh, that's that part. We can segue whenever on June, on, uh, the plaques, which is a nice segue to this, but, uh, but I pause if there's any questions about that part. Thank you so much, both of you for sharing. I'm just wondering if this is an appropriate time for us to consider boating on, if we, um, would cosponsor the event? I'm happy to hear, um, a motion to be listed as a cosponsor for the event. And I believe that, that is what is being asked of us, is that, uh, that we be listed as a cosponsor, that we support it, and, and, uh, and to the extent that we promote things on, uh, our webpage or Facebook page or anything like that, that we, uh, would promote it there as well. Is there such a motion at this time? I'd like to make that motion. I'll second that motion. All right. Um, having been, uh, a motion having been made and seconded, we will now call a vote, all in favor of supporting, uh, the Juneteenth celebration as described. Any against? All right. Um, it looks like, uh, it passes unanimously. Thank you. All right. Well, segueing and, and bringing in, um, our, uh, other two participants in this section. Um, I first learned of the, um, the plaques when I moved here shortly after 2007 and, uh, but I'd like to just, uh, yield to, um, uh, Anika Lopes or Deborah Bridges to, to pick up and I can chime in a little bit on it later on. Anika, are you there? I'm here. Can you hear me? Yes. So can you explain, um, the significance of the plaques and your family's history, um, about these plaques? Oh, sure. Thank you. Um, I'm not sure how much history, uh, background that you all have in regards to the, um, the Civil War plaques, um, which include names, uh, from soldiers from the 54th Regiment. Um, my grandfather, Dudley Bridges, had, uh, first had interest in these plaques that actually came to the town. Um, well, his interest came to the town around 2000 and it wasn't until 2002 that he had approval to begin fundraising, uh, to find these plaques at proper home, proper memoriam. Uh, he passed before this could be completed in 2004. Uh, myself, I stumbled upon an article, um, originally, uh, from Amherst. I lived in Brooklyn for decades when I came back. I stumbled upon an, uh, article which talked about these plaques and how they run storage. Um, so of course my first call was to historians, the Shabazzas, and, um, you know, learned of what they knew about it. Talked to some of my other, uh, family members who had been involved with, um, the Civil War, the graves that had gone into the West Cemetery. Um, and, uh, just response lately and talking with the Historical Committee has been, uh, people are, it seemed to be excited about it. And, um, you know, we're happy to move forward. Um, extremely grateful for, um, expert input involvement like, um, Mr. Shabazz, Dr. Shabazz, who has more in-depth information in regards to his experience with the town, um, and ceremonies that have been held. Um, but which is definitely we are, um, in works on our proposal to have these really up and moving in hopes that they are not only celebrated, it's, um, actually more important maybe now than it has been in some time to get them up, but also in hopes that it will lead to other cultural art installations around the town to really represent the diversity of this town in addition to Emily Dickinson. So if it's okay, I'd like to hand it back to Dr. Shabazz. Real quickly, Jennifer, was the, um, were the articles shared with the commission? Yes. Okay, great. So I think it's mentioned in one of the articles, um, if I remember correctly, that the Bridges family, is it correct, Anika? You, you all go back at least five generations? Well, yes. So my, my great-grandfather was also very passionate about this. My great-grandfather was Gilbert Roberts, um, who was born, when was he born? 1896. He was born in Amherst in 1896, his father as well, before him. So what's, what's important about that, and thank you, um, that was Deborah Bridges, uh, her mother, um, that, you know, this is a family, uh, uniquely an African-American family that has been here over five generations. And, um, they are the embodiment of, uh, local history. And so her grandfather, putting in the time and effort to actually help, um, preserve these plaques, uh, and help restore them, uh, is, is particularly important for the history, the, the whole history, right? And the whole story and narrative of this community. And there are few to none in terms of spaces and places that African-Americans can claim historically in this town, that there's an actual space where we could go and say, you know, this, this is our contribution. Uh, certainly there are places, there's a whole neighborhood, um, of, uh, you know, that was, uh, populated mainly by African-Americans at, at one point. Um, but in terms of, uh, the, the history and contributions being recognized in a very public way and shared, um, with this community, there, there are none really. Um, so, you know, these plaques are monumental, um, in, in several ways. They're big, um, but they're, they're monumental in terms of the story that they tell. And, um, the historic commission is, um, you know, that it's going to come before the historic commission to get, um, it's been before the historic commission, um, to get, uh, you know, try to figure out where are these plaques to go. And so we see it as a part of the story of Juneteenth. We see it as a part of celebrating and recognizing the history and contributions of African-Americans within this community. And so therefore I, and my husband, um, also see it as something that the Human Rights Commission, um, I feel strongly should take up in some way. And so I hope you, um, will be convinced to feel the same. And as this works its way through the historic, uh, commission and committees and the town government in terms of where to place these, um, these monuments to, um, African-Americans who have sacrificed their lives, uh, for this country. Um, I hope that the Human Rights Commission will support it and help as the, as these, as the permissions, uh, and this discussion progresses through the town. And I'll just jump in to say this that, um, you know, projects to make it through, uh, to completion, any thing within the town needs a champion. The last champion on this was our town manager, John Massanti. And, uh, and he, he died, you know, without, you know, with the ball, with the ball being dropped here. His championship was that it should go in the, um, in the meeting room, uh, in town hall, but, uh, it was deemed that, um, the, the, the tablets were too heavy to, uh, go in that room and then they just stay crated up, mothballed and, and it, um, it hasn't had a champion since then to really move the dime and get things going on this. By the way, to not get it twisted, it is not simply the African-American soldiers on these tablets. In 1893, the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War veterans organization donated to Amherst, the six large marble tablets that displayed the names of more than 300 soldiers from Amherst and surrounding Hilltown communities who had enlisted in the Union cause on, on, uh, on behalf of the citizens. Uh, among these were about 21 Black soldiers, uh, soldier fathers, sons, brothers, uncles and nephews from this area who enlisted and served in the 54th. So the 21 African-Americans are there, but it, it, it recognizes the contribution of all 300 plus soldiers from this area, regardless of ethnic or racial background, are, are, are commemorated for their sacrifice and for their, you know, participation in that, in that great, great conflict. Thank you. You know, I think it's, it's important to recognize different voices that have been a part of Amherst's history throughout Amherst's history. Um, you know, one of the things that, that is always tricky for me is looking back at celebrations of, of lives lost. Um, and I think that's important. You know, there's, there's the counterbalancing of celebrating those, um, who, who die in battle, um, as opposed to other, other voices. Um, so recognizing the heroism of war, um, which is when you don't have a choice when there's a draft or when you're fighting a just cause, I, I imagine that there are many people who would argue that that is the appropriate thing to do, um, to celebrate those lives. To the extent that, um, you know, there's a habit of having, you know, memorials to those who have fought in wars, regardless of what side they fought on, you know, and we see this at educational institutions where you recognize people who have, um, participated in any conflict, um, and particularly places that are old enough that they have people who have fought on both sides of the civil war. And, and when they recognize both, that's, that to me is an issue. Um, and it's not a good thing to do. Uh, but, uh, I, I think for this one, we would need to have a little bit more knowledge on what's happening, um, as it's going through the process and what would be a supportive way to make sure that that aspect, at least that aspect of Amherst's history does not get lost, um, in the process of the removal in 1997 for the cleaning, I think it was, and it was supposed to go back up and then it just didn't ever go back up. Uh, and, and there were plants that were drawn up in 2003, I think it, it, it, uh, the material we've, we received said, um, so there's definitely, at least appear to have been an intent to maintain that. And, uh, for whatever reason, there, the choices made by town governments between that time and now have not carried through that, uh, that anticipated maintenance. So, um, you know, as, as it's going forward, I think it would be good for us to stay informed. Uh, Ghazi Chaya, you had something to say. I'm just wondering, um, Dr. Shabazz, are we aware of any other families that have direct connection to any of the other 300 names that may still be around in town? Um, the, what I know on that is that, um, there was an effort at West Cemetery some years ago to clean up all of the grave sites and to, um, put little markers and flags on all of the, um, uh, tombstones, all of the burial plots of those who had served, um, and, uh, and were buried in West Cemetery. And at that time, there were a number of, um, families, descendants who, uh, who came out to that service. I met several of the families. So, um, there, there is information on that and, uh, uh, and there are people still living, um, some in the area and some outside the area. I think some of the descendants came as far as from, like, Virginia or somewhere to, uh, to participate in that, um, that service. There's an article about it somewhere in the, in the, uh, local paper, uh, when it was held. But yes, there were many living, uh, descendants of, uh, folks, uh, on those, among those 300 names on the tablets that are, uh, that are in the area and outside the area. Thank you. I ask because I'm wondering if it's of use to have this not have to be held solely, um, through the Bridges family, um, and if there might be some connecting of the other families. Uh, and my other question was, is as you go through the process, you, you mentioned that you're looking or that there's a champion that's needed some, that there's, um, a need for someone to take up this cause. And I'm wondering, is this, uh, more of promoting and reinforcing the community support? Or is there also like financial and logistical needs? Well, go ahead, Anika. At this point, we are, uh, really wanting to get the message out, awareness, um, support, interest. There has been, uh, a significant amount, Dudley Bridges, uh, grandfather to Anika Lopes, uh, father to Deborah. Um, he actually, at the end of his life, raised a considerable amount of money, um, in conjunction with, uh, his friends at the VA and within the town. And, uh, what happened after the restoration of these plaques from what I understand, and Anika, please correct me if I'm wrong, that they were restored, cleaned, and then shelved. So, uh, they have been in storage, uh, in Jones Library. And I'm sorry, not James. They're at, they're at Ruckston's, um, storage unit. And so they were put in store, and temporary storage. So there's a question of what, will they need to be restored again, because what they were put in was only supposed to be temporarily. And it's been, that was done in, so it's been quite a, quite a long time since they've been in there. And so that, that's, uh, an issue and a problem, because you have these, um, these monuments that were cleaned, restored, then put into storage. And no one, you know, has figured out what to do with them. Yet there is funding, there is money that's available to help erect, create a space in which to place, uh, these, these tablets. So thus far, we haven't gotten anything from, uh, the town manager or the historic commission to say, hey, we're against this. It's simply going through the process. So they do, like Anika indicated, they, um, are excited about the possibility of these going somewhere. But, you know, as, as my husband indicated, there needs to be some community support around the placement and how they are to be displayed. There is funding that was raised and the money is just sitting there. So it's not like we're asking even for the town to put forth more money. I mean, I don't know. So we're 35,000 dollars that was, um, gifted by the community CDBG, like the historical part of the CDBG committee commission. Right. So I don't, the money that, that came from Mr. Bridges, I'm not quite sure where that is or if that was used in the original, um, restoration or not. Well, I also know the news article that looked like about 14,000 was wasted at some point on some, some architectural firm to, to make some kind of evaluation that again went nowhere, went, went into the trash basket. So, you know, we don't want that. We don't want more money wasted. We want a champion that can help us figure this out, um, establish a good visible place, for this. And by the way, three members of the Dickinson family are on the tablets. So, you know, if there are any descendants of the Dickinson's, you know, they, they're, they're a part of this too. Now, Jennifer, you just mentioned the community development block grant at some point, 35,000 dollars. But we're also hearing that a component of it, 14,000 of that at least was spent, or we're talking about different pockets of money currently now currently in that, I say, yeah, that was voted more. Yep. And, um, the former planning director, not John Thompson, sorry, I've come to a loss in names, but he was spearheading it. And then he retired. So he was starting to make movement on it again. But then he retired. So once again, we're back here and I saw Benjamin on who is, works in the planning department, but it seems like he signed off. I was hoping maybe we could get some information from him as well as, but I do know that the local historic district commission is very excited to have this to start to move. So yes, we would like to keep it moving and not have it fall back again. There was questions about where to put it. So it doesn't necessarily work in the library and it doesn't necessarily work in Town Hall. I personally think the North Common, if they could figure a way to have it outside would get the most views that way, or even across from Sweetser Park before the Emily Dickinson, there's a, there's town property right in there. I don't know that it would get as many views as it would get if it was in the North Common, but they're also redoing the North Common. So perhaps that can be tied into the plans of the reconfiguration of the North Common. One of the other things I saw in the description of the stone itself is that things such as human sweat and whatever else that it really does need to be taken care of. I don't know what that means as far as both placement as well as the study for the proper preservation of the tablets over time. And so, you know, I think one of the things we would like to know is what the investment that the town wants to make in recognizing that aspect of its history, because from the information that we've received, there appears to be some degree of maintenance cost that would be required over time, particularly if it were outdoors and not kept away from where people can touch it. So that's something that I think it would help help us all as we're trying to figure out how much to push. And we also haven't heard, because we haven't met since February, and we know that there's unfortunately a lot of cuts that are going to be made, a lot of tax money that isn't going into the town over the last couple of months, and that there's a lot of cost cutting that's going to be happening with regard to education, with regard to employment, that it is a concern. You know, if we're going to promote something, we just should have some idea of what the, if there's already funding there for it. And it sounds like there already is some funding for this project that might allow it to move forward in some fashion. I guess to boil it down to sort of, again, what the ask is here is just as a related part of town government with, you know, commanding the respect of our city council, of our town council members and of our town manager, just in whatever way you all might think to make a nudge on this, a memo, a note, the, I think could be very helpful in moving it along. I've taken the liberty to discuss this with colleagues of mine in the architecture department at UMass. These people have expertise in building materials and other kinds of materials. They have expertise on developing structures that could be put in. And I think we could even, you know, enlist, I'm looking at how to enlist them to do it in ways that could be educational for the students and therefore more on a pro bono basis. So I don't think we need to get caught up at this point in anything else than just trying to nudge for there to be a champion, for a champion to emerge within our town administration, our town bureaucracy so that this thing can move forward and not be left to be mothballed and die again since it's been brought back up. We just need all voices, I think, pushing to get that champion, but, you know, the site, the location, the building materials, how it's protected. We've got expertise around here and some that we don't even have to pay for, possibly, that can configure all of those kinds of questions out. One of our council members is a professor of architecture, chair of, has been the chair of the department, Schreiber. I know Steve very well and can talk, and many of you may know him as well. And, you know, we configured this out in terms of the best place to place it, how to place it that protects it and preserves it with a low maintenance ongoing maintenance bill, you know, and we've got the historians here in town that can help to develop the signage and the to help tell the story and contextualize it for people as they stop and view it. All we have, though, is a more than century-old part of our town remembrance of this great conflict and of the sacrifices made locally in it. We just need the will to step out there to, again, create that champion to move it through the bureaucracy to where it gets out of crates and moth balls and storage units and back into the culture of our town. Absolutely. Thank you again. I have two thoughts. I'm wondering if we could consider, it sounds like this may already be a thought of yours to weave it into the Juneteenth and consider explicitly inviting some of the families that were invited to that West Cemetery event and provide opportunity for some more connecting and perhaps specifically invite someone from the planning, from the town planning department. But I'm also wondering if the commission would consider writing a letter of support and weaving in some of acknowledgement that Matthew mentioned about the struggles about celebrating war, but also about acknowledging that this is something that's very absent from our community and something that is an opportunity that we have that doesn't actually require too much financial investment, which is unique and something we should really take advantage of, that we could share with the town council and the community to state that we would support this project moving forward and then consider keeping it on our agenda is something to check back in with the progress on a just an ongoing basis to keep it in presence of mind. And I'll just say I think that's exactly the type of support that we're looking for and also to generate interest it would be great to know if there are other family members in the community or you know close by we can know you know people can speak over the internet that would be great. These you know we do have you know quite a lot of interest in our you know where of course of the time we are in this world and where you know money is needed most in some cases so yes again we have all of those things in the works and we just are looking for and appreciative of any other support and moving forward. So I'm not sure though if we received a if that was a motion for a statement and if so who we are tasking with drafting that statement in the first instance and then whether it's coming back to us to approve the statement at our next meeting. If that's the case I would just love to hear a motion and know that we have a volunteer who is willing to work on drafting the statement that we would be able to approve at our next meeting. Thank you Matthew. That is exactly what I meant to say and I appreciate you helping me with the language of how to do these meetings. So yes I would like to make a motion that we draft a letter of support and I would be happy to take that on and that we come back together at the next meeting to vote on approving that. Is there a second? Second? Okay so we have again a motion made and seconded that just requires a vote of the commission. All those in favor? All right any opposed? Abstentions? All right again it looks like we are happy to work on a statement and we have already a volunteer who is willing to get us moving on it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Wonderful. That brings us onto just a quick indicator of coming events. We had already listed that Juneteenth was an event that we and I'm glad that those who are organizing it were able to join us this evening because we were going to plan on discussing that as an event that we would look to support again. We've also received notes from those involved with Citizens for Race Amity now about supporting Race Amity Day. That is not going to be an event that is being hosted within the town but instead it was just a question of whether we could notify about a statewide event that's going to be happening on Zoom all electronically and whether we could to the extent that we are notifying others of events through our web pages that we would do that and I believe that's coming up in about two weeks a little bit less than that. So that is and then the third upcoming event was the reading of the Frederick Douglass speech What to the Slave is the Fourth of July. So Jennifer you wanted to speak on that. We're not hearing. You're muted. The dog was barking. So I wanted to bring it back to Juneteenth quickly just because I also forgot that I spoke with Cynthia Harbison from the library and she's going to come up with a digital display of the items that she has in archives for Juneteenth. So that will be that will be very nice as well. And then moving to the speech now I had spoken with Dr. Shabazz, Mr. Dr. Shabazz about speech and I think that there was some talk about having children read the speech was that am I correct in that that you had said Ingrid had suggested that. Yeah that's what we're hearing. Yep. Okay. Still looking to be doing it on a virtual level. Yep. Yeah. With ACT hopefully with Amherst media I'm sorry I keep calling it ACTV. So yes we hope that is yet to be arranged. We're trying to work with them on Juneteenth so one event at a time but most likely it would also work through Zoom and have young people read different parts which I think even you know through Zoom visually that would be really exciting to have young people from the community participate. So Petua will be looking you know there's at least three of you all in one family so getting you all to help read as well. So I'm also going to sorry do we have a date and time on Juneteenth? Yeah June 19th. 4 30. 4 30. No 4 o'clock. 4 o'clock. 4 to 5 30. And we'll be sending that out we're trying to they have to do the Zoom connection through Amherst media and so we can't send the invitation out until they figure out how that's going to work because it's going to be live so that's why it's it's taking a little bit. Should be out tomorrow or the next day. Yeah I was I was going to ask if the bell ringing ceremony was going to be taped live. Well no they said they recommended that we tape a ringing of the bell that already occurs and they'll put it in at that time. Yeah I mean because what it is and I'm now I'm wearing my official hat so to speak as as president of the board of Amherst media you're talking about two staff members and Jim the executive director and that's going to be pretty difficult to coordinate because you'd have to have one person at the station ready to go live with the Zoom for broadcast and then another person taping you know at town hall so that's that's just too much really to try to coordinate during these times and we don't have interns right now so yeah. We can talk about these little details a little bit more but I'm sorry IT department can get involved in that as well. Okay great. I think often avoiding doing things live that can be recorded in advance and that we know work is not necessarily a bad thing. Exactly. The counselors will be doing a prerecorded each of them will take a portion of the proclamation. I'm not quite sure which one's yet but they will take a portion of the proclamation and read it and have it recorded and they'll send it to Bree and Bree will compile it and then send it to AC Amherst media. Great. Awesome. Okay. I'm going to actually ask that we take the wage by law proposal and non-discrimination statement proposal out of order and bring them up before we discuss generally speaking the leadership role of the human rights commission during this challenging time and health and safety housing employment and income issues and equal treatment under law issues just because the wage by law proposal is a more specific issue and in the non-discrimination statement is one that we've already heard about in great detail and so to the extent that we want to speak to that or or act on that in any way I think that we would be able to do that fairly quickly and and I do get concerned that the you know the meeting did start a little after six but there are all these studies that suggest that Zoom isn't really that great for people staying on for hours and hours so if we can avoid that I would I would try to do that. All right so I emailed out the the wage by law and that is a proposal it is something that as I mentioned and I only sent that out I think at something like five thirty or something like that as to deal with the fact that the town will sometimes work with contractors I think that in a lot of other communities they have used the wage by law to prevent the towns or cities themselves from hiring contractors who are stealing wages from employees or are collecting tips together and then not distributing them to people who are doing the work for which they believe they're being paid and so the intent as I read it behind the wage by law proposal is for there to be some kind of punishment at a town level in addition to reporting the companies that are not making payments to the Attorney General's office but also to say we're going to recognize that this company has to put a bond down to make sure that they're going to be able to hire to pay the employees that they've hired and to make sure that individuals are not deprived of income after they've done work and I believe that in the communities that have focused on areas like the construction trade they've looked specifically at communities that tend to be taken advantage of you know picked up to do subcontractor work and then end up being stiffed at the end of a work day and said look we need to do something where at least if there's a town contract we're not putting our money behind a company that is harming individuals who would be doing that work so there's very little that the Human Rights Commission itself is being asked to do in this it does require that human rights director so someone working within the town and looking at human rights issues as a town employee be able to receive complaints about violations of a wage by law report that to licensing bodies in town to prevent people from continuing to have a license to do work within the town of Amherst if they're abusing employees and and to try every two years to meet with the attorney general's office to discuss what is occurring within the town of Amherst and what we're doing to to deal with that problem so take a take a look at it it is again something that is going to go before the town council at some point and I believe the town counselors who who reached out wanted to know that it would have the support of the Human Rights Commission I don't know that you've had enough time without us having met and while I would love to believe that you could all just rely on my say so I would be a little bit more comforted knowing that everyone had a chance to actually read the document and and reach their own opinions on that Jennifer you got to unmute yourself Jennifer sorry is this the revised draft I sent out the draft that Mandy Johanke sent to me a couple of days ago so maybe yes the most revised draft I believe that I I'm not part of their drafting process so I can't say for sure what is the most revised but this one limits some of the role of the Human Rights Commission and others in in investigation one of the things that a lot of people think is a good idea in the first instance is that a body like ours investigate complaints without realizing that such an investigation would be a public investigation and that as a volunteer body that meets once a month we aren't in a position to to jump on investigations and to to work with them very quickly so that's that's there have been some changes I think but they are looking to to wage bylaws that have passed in other communities as the basis for the wage bylaw and am I understanding correctly they recently passed unanimously something to do with this am I correct when I reached out to my town counselor I think it was earlier in the week and said I'd like to share my support for the wage bylaw theft bill or I'm not sure exactly its title and my town counselor responded that we had they had voted unanimously and approved it I had not yet heard that and so I would find it surprising for them to reach out and ask for us to discuss it at this meeting if if that vote had occurred but you know so maybe I maybe it was a part well it has a double prep double process so it has to go to G it goes to starts and I think they started it in GOL and then it goes GOL presents to the council and it gets approved and then it goes back if there's any changes that are needed back to GOL so kind of for what is somewhere that it was approved with GOL what is GOL oh yes governance of organization and legislation I'm sorry they have a lot of those and I I have May 28th about the Amherst wage theft ordinance from Darcy Dumont the town services committee last week voted unanimously to support the proposed wage theft bylaws now the proposal has moved to governance organization and legislation committee and to review by the town attorneys it will then it will move to the full council for a vote hopefully by the end of June yeah okay yeah I I think I announced back in September that one of the town counselors had reached out over the summer and said that there was a possibility of of some kind of wage bylaw being looked into and and I didn't receive any I don't believe I received additional information up until about another few weeks ago so I'm glad that it's moving forward and it's something that people have been looking at for for a good while now and who's the staff person that's going to be contacted since we don't have a human rights director so it would have been Evelyn Evelyn is leaving so to most likely go to Paul and or myself yep and what are they asking of us again the there were two components to the human rights commission's role one was just that we could engage in in community education on on issues of of wage theft right and and the other whenever you say two things and you know you're going to forget the second um the other was um 3C and D uh let's see that the um it was the human rights chair has to compile a little report I believe with the director an annual report it's the it's the town human rights director working with the human rights commission shall publish an annual report detailing the number of wage and tip theft complaints received actions taking a response to such complaints etc so um and any recommendations for revision uh to the wage and tip theft by law so um so that's something you know over time I think the language will have to be worked out um what exactly does that entail what responsibility would we have uh that might be something that gets worked out more in practice uh than it it can uh by trying to do perfect wordsmithing just to figure out how exactly we would want to report back um as part of the community uh and say this is something that we feel needs to change this population is really being taken advantage of but that's something that could come through us but the human rights director would be the author of the report so given that the council's trying to vote on it by the end of June and we're not going to meet again until July I'd like to make a motion that we go ahead and give our support and as you said that we let it you know as it comes to fruition it will get fine-tuned about what our role is but that we have a ability to say so I also was going to ask if you guys wanted to go ahead and meet on our third Thursday or the fourth Thursday of the month I wasn't sure if you guys wanted to or not there's just a lot going on right now and we are down to the last half hour of our meeting and we haven't gotten all the way through the agenda and the next items up are pretty important so I just would like to know how you guys feel about that I mean I I for one um would be okay with would be excited about a a check-in at the very least um you know to see if there's stuff that we can be responsive to and thoughtful about and help the town on and and I also like seeing all of you so there's that too um so I would be up for that I don't know if everyone else um feels the same way I absolutely do are we talking about the 18th of the 25th I'm okay with either one of those I just it's up to you guys well I think if it's the 18th then we would have one day to check in about whether there was any further needs regard you know for the Juneteenth so it might be strategic for us to meet on the 18th it'd be fine with that yeah and I also think that that would um before the the academic year officially ends I think it officially ends for the Amherst public schools on the 18th on the 18th yeah so um so for for people who are somehow connected with people in that system and who otherwise are going to flee um as soon as they can uh once things shut down um the 18th people might still be around so that's where is anyone going yeah that's a good point that's a good point um they might retreat further into their house and does this time work for everyone this time the 6 p.m. time is good it's possible I may have a conflict but if everyone else can do it I'll do my best to figure it out I you know if we can try and um we've tried to keep these meetings to an hour and a half obviously there's a lot happening right now and we haven't talked about the stuff happening right now because we wanted to um to be responsive to to some of the requests that have come in on specific issues for events coming up um so I think if we can do six and um and if we have a lot to do um use at least a full hour and a half um if we don't then we we check in and uh and we keep on moving all right um so it seems like we're we're good on that um and that brings us back to the leadership role of the human rights commission during this time and uh I put underneath that uh you know health and safety housing employment income uh in equal treatment under law that's a lot and one of the reasons I put all those things down is um we are um the part of the town that tries to make sure we're working for everybody that we're expressing the same care for all of the people who come through Amherst as as anyone could possibly be treated with uh under the rules and under the the laws of our town and we are parts of a lot of different communities a lot of different um both in Amherst nationally and globally we're parts of a lot of different communities and because of that we're seeing different things um and we're responding to different things with the COVID pandemic I think there's a lot that um that different people are seeing and different relationships among uh those that we care about um you know as far as you know Deb just mentioning quarantine uh and the fact that people aren't going anywhere um when we are when we're outside when we're interacting with each other are we all being treated the same way and you know the answer unfortunately here as elsewhere is likely no um and even being in spaces where not everyone feels safe and comfortable uh being in the same space as as family members as partners um over a long period of time and there's a question of what we can do and we can't be in everyone's home we can't um we can't deal with every issue that comes up we can be aware and uh and try to be thoughtful of things like like the discrimination that was occurring in January, February, March as some people tried to treat COVID as though it came from a particular country or that people who were of particular ethnic backgrounds were more likely to be carriers than other people um and I've heard less about that in Amherst than I've heard about it in a lot of other places which is a good thing but uh that doesn't mean that it's not an issue um for those of us who have family members who've had uh you know dealings I had a nephew who was flying across country and on a layover in Salt Lake City was arrested uh and beaten by the police officers there um that was end of April and you know this is part of living in the United States today um and it would be great if we as a community were able to um to bring our voices together and and speak to this I'm so glad that um our town manager police chief superintendent of schools uh and police unions um came together to make a statement on uh that I also joined for the human rights commission or I guess I joined as chair of the human rights commission because I couldn't get you guys uh together to to vote on it I hope you have read it I hope you liked it um but you know to to basically say we need to do better as a community um I think the human rights commission has a great role in listening um and so I would like to hear from you if there are voices that we um I should be listening to and amplifying during this time uh in ways we can do that and I will say that for myself I'm I'm I'm tired I know a lot of people are we're dealing with a lot of of things we're worried about a lot of different people and um and strangely enough for for those of us who are able to continue working we continue to have deadlines for those of us who are not able to continue working that tires you out too um it it it leaves you worried and and that impacts you so um if there are some voices that that you think we should be hearing and amplifying in town I would love to hear that now and and have us discuss that for a few minutes to see what our role can be in in listening to and amplifying those voices um I guess I'll go first um I think as a young person I think that uh with social like social media especially the like hyper exposure to everything that's going on and like with around the country in in like Northampton Boston all like all like how um how this is affecting like the whole country is like it's a huge moment before I think a lot all of us but I feel like especially for the youth who are often at the forefront of like movements that occur nationwide or internationally and all of that I think it's really important that we as a community help inform the youth and like just like guide people guide us uh the young people to be able to um like express their like grievances about what's going on but also like like be able to feel like they have power in their in the Amherst community to make change whether that be in their schools or in their uh in their communities that they're in their home areas neighborhoods um like how or jobs too if they're working like how they can uh a lot of be like powerful in their youth um knowing that many movements are started by and it's sustained by like youth um agents so I think that I think there's a lot of hope that comes with um events like these even with all the revolts and everything that's like who are fueling up a lot of emotions like like a lot of hope it's like really um instilling in what's going on so I think that to sustain that hope and like carry it over into like the systems that youth have to interact with all the time was really important to show not only that adults are like not just like okay not just like being like okay we see you but we're not really going to change anything that's working for us but also like um have like just making sure that youth are able to be like stakeholders in their own futures in their own education their own careers and stuff like that I think that's really important and that's and knowing that like in America a lot of black people especially specifically are being like have always been fighting for liberation um since the moment since they first arrived here involuntarily like like they isn't like um to see how youth can see themselves whether they're black or white or all like all the intersections of themselves how they can see themselves as stakeholders in their futures and learning through other um movements but also like seeing seeing change happen in their community I think is really important so I think exposing the Amherst youth to those to the change that is happening in the community whether it's on the government level or in the in their evil and smaller community that is really important so yeah sharing that was really important to me especially. Thank you Petra I'm wondering do you have um an idea about what type of an event or um uh or an effort would be something that would feel um accessible and welcoming and um affirming to you specifically? Yeah I've been thinking mostly in terms of education because like right now I know that all of us are dealing with like online um schooling which is really difficult for a lot of us for various reasons whether you have like IEPs or anything that like you're like people know that you have something that you need extra care for but even if like with me like I'm a I have I school has always been easy for me but even in this time it's been especially difficult to find the motivation to do the work that I want it that I need to do in order to prepare for my future and knowing like even with the events with like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor all those people that have died for like no reason other than being black that is um something that like it makes me kind of second guess the education that I am receiving and I think that is that I think that's that's being shared more often on social media so I think that especially when thinking about the leadership administration in schools like thinking about how either to affirm to students that their education that they're receiving now is important but also like taking a look at what the education they are receiving and how that's preparing them for the world that they're entering or they see every day I think that there needs to be a collaboration between leadership in education and the youth and also just I think social media is a really good like tool especially with youth all the time like instagram needs to get those posts all the time snapchat you have discussions all the time and it's it's had their positives and negatives but like having an event where students can like just share their experiences in the community and these can be like even people who have graduated from the high school and like have their own experiences so we should like so we can know what our school is like what our school can be too I think that would be really great um and then also like the transparency with the administration how how like what exactly are they implementing to combat the white supremacist like structures that are in educational systems across america specifically amherst I think that transparency is really important so I think transparency the leadership is important and then conversations among the youth um that are did they like the human right like wanting us to share our voices what whether we do it like with the artistic approach or videos or like if you want to do something sports really using your own talents to express how you're feeling what it was really important so yeah that would be cool well I want to pose a question and this is to everyone in this time period where people aren't together um you know obviously there's the ability on zoom for those people who are controlling this to um be in breakout spaces breakout rooms um and there's a chance for people to talk with each other I think one of the things that we lose when we have um you know people who've graduated from the high school in the last couple of years who are now looking at a broader world all the way down to people who are younger who just want to express what it means to to them to see things that are um either frighteningly new and disturbing or frighteningly not new and disturbing you know um but I just noticed ben that you also had had your hand up you were going to speak yeah so so the question posed like what voices need to be amplified in amherst in the valley in general so I was part of this men of color conversation yesterday within the school district and yes we were talking to the men of color who are in positions of leadership within the district but the voices that don't get heard here in the valley like the the I guess there's a frequency situation here going on where there's there's this deafness to this certain frequency black voices african-american black voices specifically we don't hear a lot from from young black men out here about what they're going through and yet when I drive through calm those are the ones that I see that are dealing with these situations yes they affect other people but it's different when you're looking at like like a george floyd situation and you see that oh wow that's the same I'm the same target as that person those are the voices that fall by the wayside consistently throughout the valley and specifically in amherst and then all the the black voices in general but I'm saying like there was that there because there was like a general sense I mean there it was well attended yesterday right online and socially distant but very well attended and there was the the consensus there you know not one person disagreed with that point right there and so so action right so you have you have the cause and then there's the action what we had started to discuss was the idea of having like forums like the the first the first one that I was but I'm willing to put together and participate and I guess I would welcome the commission and other folks but around father's day we're going to do like a but it's going to be a discussion between black fathers and black sons not necessarily between me and my sons but you know getting a whole bunch of folks together that that don't feel like they're heard that need to feel like they're that they're being affirmed you know so that's that's my soap opera thank you Ben I I think the idea of forums is could be very powerful I did want to just mention Matthew that from my experience in with another committee breakout rooms do not allow for open meeting law to be upheld and so there has been some difficulty with allowing for that technology to be used but I think that it to speak to both Petua and Ben the opportunity to specifically create a time set aside that's not in this formalistic come in and make a public comment only type of a model to allow for something more informal for people to come together and speak to their experiences could be really worth considering and then there's the other piece of that oftentimes these stories of experiences of being profiled or targeted in a biased way in our community are experienced by individuals who are particularly vulnerable and we would be exposing them in a public format possibly so there's the confidentiality piece and how do we provide a mechanism for people to not further their vulnerabilities by sharing with us and I think that's something that we've been talking about since the retreat that we don't have a effective way to receive complaints and to further them on that doesn't jeopardize someone so I think I just want to can I just want to respond really quickly to the I may have misspoken earlier when I was suggesting that I know that on zoom you can do breakout rooms it was a question of if you were trying to get um allow for young people um or for for others who need to hear from each other and express things to each other um in order to kind of figure out um what they should be discussing or what we as a community should be discussing um it would be making a proposal to um the the school district or to another entity to create that space to do it um we don't control this technology and so on and and as far as making sure that people's voices are heard one concern I had was um that if you have a thousand people um you know on a zoom call I don't think that's possible but I don't know anything about technology but if you had a few hundred people on the zoom call and uh someone was trying to speak and you they can't be heard um or or you've got at any point like 250 people even if 50 people get to speak who are just sitting there and they're only listening so if we could do something that would give everyone a chance to kind of articulate um something and then bring it back uh but but that would be one way of of trying to hear the voices that are out there before going to the next step of figuring out how do we amplify that voice and I didn't mean to cut you off Ben um when you were saying something oh yeah yeah like I was kind of speaking the same thing like the the forums I was talking about were for the people we're talking about so it would be just with those folks and like if we collectively felt the need to report back to someone we would do that but but like like my thought was having uh like sponsoring those things and having like safe I hate the term safe space but having spaces for those conversations you know I mean that that's kind of what I was thinking less facilitating than just and so I just wanted to comment on the zoom statement so in a forum like this we wouldn't have to worry about uh open meeting laws though in such so those wouldn't apply to this but and then another angle I'm still feel like the town itself needs to come out a little bit and so I'm going to be working with um Paul to see what it is that what that might look like and and how we can do something and then again as of the human rights commission I'm hosting this meeting so really the way if you have a big crowd that you want to do it is you want to have people type in their questions so that you can kind of scroll through because we've had a few meetings that people have said some stuff that just probably shouldn't have been said in the live meeting setting so you can kind of field those questions as well sometimes but I I'm thinking that there should be a series of forums because there's so much to this right there's an educational piece that needs to be considered too as well because there are people in the community that just don't quite understand and get it and and maybe we can't get them but if we make that attempt to say hey this is our way of trying to educate you if you know this is what we're going to do then that at least we know we've tried right so I kind of feel like there's that piece of that from the town that that needs to happen whether that be us in conjunction or not um and also the social media and I know Romy I'm gonna is it okay if we if I put you as a user tomorrow for the Facebook so we can get that going please do that I would love that Jennifer and then maybe we can get some um like the different events that can be shared on Facebook and we can put it through our feed too and then we can all share it out if we have access to Facebook if we use Facebook I did attend the the protest on the common it was great there were a few people who I mean there's a lot of room there not everybody was social distancing but there was a good thousand people there so there are people who do want to be involved and do want to do something we need to come up with lots of creative ways to kind of move that forward and I think a series of different forums for young versus old and or young an old that's the basketball thing so um and just you know have it all kind of come together would be really fantastic so who would we ask to uh to engage in that kind of forum creation right we can make the proposal that there needs to be an opportunity for different voices to communicate and to be heard but um who then controls this space within which people can talk with each other deal with each other especially when most of the people I know growing up in community organizations we did things by coming together we did things by seeing each other and by creating that sense of community that can't really happen now just in this pandemic the way that it typically has happened and we would typically expect it to happen uh Debra you've been waiting to speak I apologize no worries um yeah I just felt so moved when Petra when you were speaking because my daughter I think is in your class and I was thinking about the just the flooding of social media images and at the very time when you're needing the most support and the most to connect with your peers to be able to process what's happening and understand like how you respond and you know the whole questioning of like why am I even in school anyway and you know all of that questioning that that young people are are doing right now and at the very time that you need to be with your peers you can it is so hard and um so I just I love this idea of a series of um of online forums and then gazita I was really thinking when you were saying that um online it kind of exposes people in terms of confidentiality but also in terms of trauma these discussions are can be very traumatizing for a lot of people and so um at least for some of some of the different cohorts that we decide are going to be important to amplify and provide safe space for sorry then safe space for people to come together and share their experiences and and get support from each other and learn from each other that we we probably want a really strong and seasoned moderator to hold that space for people yeah just to speak to the concern about the idea of safe space I've I found it helpful to hear people describe um seeking to create a braver space because we really don't know what is going to be experienced as safe to individuals I just mean safety can like protect you from confronting the hard issues sometimes too so sometimes the opposite of what we need is the safe space we need a brave space right I just need to say that this meeting is going to end zoom is going to cut us out at eight o'clock regardless um so we kind of need to wrap it up a little bit so make sure we get our official clothes out and then it's like yeah so we definitely need to meet on the 18th and I think I'll try and post this meeting a little earlier so we can kind of see if more people like for the first time we had a few people that were in here we had there were about five people just attending not including the Shabazz's and Anika and her mother so that's really nice that is one of the plus sizes about them being on zoom is more people are involved yet Romy unmute unmute I'm sorry I have an agenda item and if we only have four minutes left I would really like the opportunity to speak yeah thank you um so there were extra attendees here because I actually did some outreach um to get people to come to this meeting because I was online asking for um asking the Amherst community to have it sent to other members of the community what what we're thinking people would like to see what what people want and I have a lot of responses and um you know some people have taken the time out of their evening to to come and see us be part of this conversation um I don't know how you guys want to put this back on the agenda item but these people who you saw this evening showed up to see that conversation um about what we can do for our community um so I would really like us to take a little bit of time to figure out when we can have that conversation for them again Romy if you could just clarify um so if you're talking about what the human rights commissions role can be and in bringing people together because I think one of the things that I was pointing out when I said that um that we don't control zoom part of it was that we we are a town entity and and we are reliant on the town uh giving us a little bit of space for us to to meet even let alone to uh to have a brave conversation about issues that that need to be discussed I'm glad that we were able to um have start a conversation this evening um and so I'm trying to figure out other than coming back in in two weeks and saying what what have we done one of the first questions that that I posed with regard to that was who who do we get in the town to um to kind of begin arranging these conversations that are important I'm glad to hear that I think some people are starting to do that um but if I keep speaking you don't get a chance to respond so well apparently we're going to be cut off in a minute yes that is what I mean um and this is a time sensitive issue people want wanted to hear from us and wanted to see leadership from us um that's why I specifically put a agenda item for the next 30 days which you push back thank you uh and I don't quite know what we're doing here if we're not here to listen to people when they when they bring things to us all right um yeah I didn't control the the zoom and and the cut off and right and I certainly nobody raised their hand to speak I don't have any I can see everybody I'm hosting the meeting I have emails I have emails and uh messages so you should share those with us though other than I mean like if you email them to us tomorrow so that we can have them I mean that's all kind of part of what this meeting was so that we can kind of figure out what it is that and where are I understand what you told us was that at eight o'clock we were about to get cut off and we had our agenda rearranged um and we have we've now gone to eight o'clock so are we are we ending this evening or are we not I mean I don't know if we can keep going we can I just assumed I put six to eight and I just assumed then the meeting would be done so if we can keep going keep going in my experience it doesn't necessarily stop okay so we can keep going I think about a timer on a Jennifer and I was like well there's some there are some zoom accounts that are timed and will cut you off right but somebody will get a signal it says you have 10 minutes left so that's really neat so but we could we could also you could share those emails and we could add this as the first agenda item for the next meeting would that would that work no I think I need to resign and I need to do outside work from our group um Paul and Matt I will send you that as an official letter thank you so much okay well I'm certainly sorry to hear that especially because as I was just asking you know the question is who do we communicate with so that people's voices can be heard who do we speak with so that the space is created because we need to do that and for you know those of us who are taking care of or are trying to take care of older parents during this time period who are looking at at trying to be responsive to news cycles that are are incredibly difficult and are trying to maintain employment at a time when a lot of people aren't keeping it um you know it's a hard time for everybody and so trying to create the space so that um we know which of these items we can we can hit on and we can move forward with and that we can partner with people in uh in the administration of the town to say look we understand that we may have missed some voices I think that that's what our role is our role as the UN rice commission is to say if there are people in the town whose voices aren't being heard in a way that it is hurting them every day and we can do something about that that's where we're able to step in that's where we're able to try to create the space but we don't have the power or the budget or to just make the space we have the ability to recognize that um people need advocates and uh and they need people who can hear them and so that's what I'm hoping we can do does it have just real quickly I'm wondering on that you know one of the sort of differences about putting on a zoom meeting versus an event where we would want to have food and you know space and some other things that are more financially um an investment I wonder if we could consider um asking the town if the HRC can sponsor a few zoom opportunities for forums and and start us off and you know create some community listening sessions um that would not be a financial investment at this point um from what I understand the town you know has the zoom account um and it would you know it could grow into something down the line when we have you know physical ability to be physically together um and I imagine we could similarly to what we've done for other events you know enlist the support and sponsorship and collaboration of other organizations but um it seems like something that perhaps the HRC could consider doing um some you know similar to bringing a table to a community event have a zoom tabling of a community opportunity yeah yeah I thought that's what we were talking about I think that is a great idea um to structure a series of zoom events and um um I also I don't know if any of you caught the um President Obama's town hall yesterday um and there were a number of organizations uh represented um in the discussions and you guys may have heard of this the eight can't wait proposals do you guys know those proposals for police and it made me wonder like I have never sat down with the police uh like the chief of police or the police in this town to just ask like you know have they already um instituted these eight these specific eight measures that data shows um really do reduce um uh violent interactions between police officers and community members um so I thought that that like there there are a lot of great organizations already doing very fine work and we could piggyback on that work and host some kind of discussion with the police and this might be redundant because maybe some of these discussions have already taken place but and then you know if we were to do that then also report back on that to the community um because I mean that's really sort of like the big and that's one of many right of the big inflamed issues at this time so it feels like it would be important to take action specifically on that in addition to multiple forums. All right and I believe Gazia was going to meet as an individual and and was looking for if if there's information that others are able to share with her I I don't ask you to do this as as the commission but I do ask you as individuals to share uh information that you have that that you think uh would be helpful and um even though I'm asking that everyone act in an individual capacity once you've acted in that individual capacity if you have information you want to bring back to all of us that we can all think about and act on um I think that that would be great. Thank you yeah that is in the works and um the shabazzas are going to be joining me in that um and I think the sorry I just jumped because my cat just bit me I have missed dinner time um so uh I think the concept of a downtown hall um is uh I think could be a great first start if the HRC was able to uh host a town hall through the the lens of hearing what's going on for people both in light of the pandemic and um the uh police brutality that's been uh more highlighted uh in the national media now even though it's not necessarily increased um uh and also um dr shabazz did share that um the bridges for unity organization that um they're a part of would be willing to cosponsor um such a town hall well one question I would have is um and again I know that zoom is not a great thing to keep people on forever but um one question I would have is um making sure we can how do we make sure we can bring in the people who have the best answers I mean one of the things about um this town is that there's a number of people who will try to respond to questions answer questions um some are are better able to articulate those responses than others but um you know I think one of the things we've done over the past few years is we've tried to bring in people from the town so we have a better understanding of what they do so that we can when we hear questions when we hear complaints we know who to reach out to um because again uh where we're the commission we can receive complaints of someone who has violated someone's rights but we aren't in a position to kind of just make rights a little bit better every day whereas there are people who do try every day and if we can help them do that and make sure that they're hearing the voices um that that we're trying to amplify that's going to help more people than um than us being in intermediary uh in the first instance but I'm trying to fear the best way to do that I know that the town council is specifically looking for feedback from the community about what the community wants um and I had um um I was at the town council meeting this week and um there and mentioned that you know if there could be an agenda on the next town uh council meeting for community members to present um some specific policies or actions that they'd like to see um the town council take and I think it would be wonderful if we could ask the town counselors um if they would be willing to attend and I think a listening session could be possibly more powerful than something like a town hall so that it's really clear that the the opportunity is not for the town to tell the community members what they're doing but it's for the town to hear um and and not necessarily even be ready with responses or um actions but just to sometimes being heard is um one of the most powerful first steps um so I I wonder um Ben with what you've been experiencing with the forum that you mentioned how this is sounding to you I mean so it's a lot of something yeah and there's uh there are definitely willing participants to come out and be heard I'll say would it be helpful if we had something on the website where people could complete online I don't know if that's helpful or not but it's always good to have an idea system somewhere where folks can write down their interest and what they're like but we want it to be real we want we want when people put something in no I'm not suggesting that you you are arguing for something it wouldn't be real I'm just saying we want to have some notion of how that would actually hear hear those voices if if we create something and we get um like a a series of of emails and we're not sure um exactly what they are mean to articulate then it puts us in a position where people feel like they've told us this is the issue and we feel like we don't know what you're talking about we don't know the issue and so ideally it would be again a kind of face-to-face thing where you can see people be with people understand all right I'm trying to respond but I see frustration in your eyes that's a problem let me try to hear you again um it's hard to do that over this kind of technology in the first instance but it's even harder if we have a separate space where put it somewhere and then we'll we'll get it later and we'll look at it um I'm not sure I have the answer to this or right now and answer I I believe that as a group we probably have more that we can think through and other resources that we can reach out to um I also really like the idea though that it's not like an either or like listening sessions or a larger town hall as well as smaller forums that happen online for like a forum for young people a forum for fathers and sons um you know that we have like group specific for a series of group specific forums maybe leading up to a larger listening session so people are connecting with each other where they have not maybe been able to connect because of the quarantine the lockdown they're connecting um and receiving support building towards a more community wide kind of forum or listening or series of listening sessions in different sections of the of of amperes south amherst north amherst east what you know what I mean that kind of thing the different districts um that I just like the idea of it not being an either or large or small but both and and like a series yeah could be and and and I think you know we have identified as a commission that anti-racism work and and addressing racial and injustice was our mission of this year and there's there's to my knowledge not been a town-wide opportunity to discuss um racial justice and I think that could be you know we could say we'd like to have an opportunity to discuss racial justice in our town in light of our history and our current events and um either have like a kickoff you know event and then a series of small forums or start with you know I think the the structure of it is probably less um you know that's something we could work out but I think that could be very powerful to just specifically address um what we have stated is our our goal for this year um in a way that explicitly um asks for community member of participation Petra I'm curious what you're thinking I think that it's important uh I think to know like what the goal of these forums are especially when like discussing how the act like just like think like what for whoever the forums are for like what is the point of the form if it doesn't like help those who are impacted um like figure out what they need to do in their community like I I feel like I am afraid that the forums will be just a way of like us being like saying like we're doing something but it's not creating some substantial change in I think I just I'm just not sure what the goal is and even when thinking about our our mission for this years of anti-racism so I'm really um confused about what our role should be and like how how how we are reaching out to communities and how we are impacting using our our role as human rights commissioners to um bring about the anti-racism that we believe in or and I don't I'm not even sure we all agree about what we believe like I feel like there's so much work that we we have to do personally to understand what we're trying to do um but before we start like imposing discussions but at the same time like um there's like what's happening right now is happening right now we must like like take um some type of role in that I just I'm gonna feel a little bit loud right now but I think um forums are great I think a great way of like just getting to hear other voices so I just I just want to be clear about what the goal of the forums would be I think yeah thanks Petra I think you you make a ton of sense and I think there's a common question of like what are we actually doing and are we making a specific change that will impact the situation rather than just talking about it I guess as part of the planning process I want to hi kitty um just sort of say that in my experience of doing things like this there's sort of different kinds of forums and I think there's like um open forums where you know anybody can come anybody can say anything um everybody can listen to everybody and then closed forums which to me are very different kind of space like what you were talking about Ben is more of a closed forum for people who um need to talk with other people who really understand their experience and I feel like Petra that's what you were talking about also to some extent and I I don't know how to balance those different needs those different kinds of spaces if we had a whole different situation I would say you know let's help people organize some closed forums first where they can talk with the folks they really need to talk with and then kind of see what comes out of that and bring that into a more open forum where everybody could learn but I think to just put everyone into an open forum just shuts shuts voices down because it's not safe it's never going to be safe I mean it's never going to be safe but it's specifically unsafe so I don't know and since I'm rolling off at the end of the month I promise I will attend things but I won't be planning them anymore but that's my thought that's Dr. Shabazz has a his hand raised which I don't know if it's Mr. or Mrs. so no am I here yes you are okay just giving you on as I mentioned to Gazette about Bridge for Unity so we've we're about a two-year-old group that has really been working on developing uh intergroup dialogue as a as a process as a methodology we have some very well-trained people who are part of it such as Paula Green the founder of the Karuna Center for for for peace there are other people on there as well my wife from her work at UMass and beyond you know with intergroup dialogue there are others on the campus as well who are really experts at intergroup dialogue so there again I just I just chime in to say there's a lot of expertise available to you as a college town to help sort of facilitate a town hall that can be can be meaningful that can provide people the opportunity to to to to express themselves to ventilate to share their concerns and to my knowledge we don't have anything like that going on in the town of Amherst so you know until COVID has lifted and we can do face-to-face things I think Zoom gives us the a tool and we have expertise through Bridge for Unity through UMass through other Hampshire College whatever we have expertise here that could really work with you to facilitate a meaningful kind of town hall I speak at this too I'll close with this having gone out to this impromptu event by the town commons that brought out you know a few hundred people I don't know and there was a lot of emotion and there was a lot of feelings and need to express and and to show solidarity and so on that you know people were out there Latinx people were out there non-Hispanic white people were out there Asian people were out there I really heard of it because the first folks calling it were the Peace Pagoda the New England Peace Pagoda folks up at at Leverett's sister Claire called me and so I knew about it from that but then it seems like simultaneously some young people jumped out and kind of flash mobbed something on social media and then you know it was this huge thing with the with the Peace Pagoda people doing their chanting and you know the crowd doing slogans out in the street it was really quite democratic quite cacophonous and wonderful but I think that's one thing but a town hall is something else and and and it could be a great thing for the town and I think the HRC could be a great entity to lead out in just you know in sponsoring that and like I said this expertise is here to do breakout sessions within Zoom to do different things to kind of moderate the flow of it but if you think it's help it would be helpful to our town in terms of preserving our culture of human rights our culture of respect of each other and turning to each other rather than against each other then then maybe it's something that could be could be useful I think to add on to that I think that's great I know there's a lot of expertise knowing that we live in a five college area also knowing that we like this town has a history of upholding human rights mindsets whether you're young or old I think that's really important so I think that like having the right leaders or facilitators more I think is better word having the right facilitators lead these discussions can really be helpful in trying to uplift the voices of like the diversity of Amherst and I think that's important that we make sure that those the facilitators are intentional in the discussions that we are having and so speaking about I think that with with my experience because I am a young person I think that there are lots of groups in our school that in high school and also in the middle school and younger students they all they all when there's like a protest like the most I've seen protest posts for Springfield and Chickpea and Holyoke and Amherst and Hampton all over the place just posts that come out so you know where to be every like every day of the week I think that the youth are really good at spreading the message and like showing up where they want to show their support which is all over the place everywhere they want to show support which I think is really important so I think there are a lot of youth leaders that we need to tap into too and I think that I think that there should be closed forms first led by respectable and trustworthy I think more facilitators last year yeah so I forgot that yeah Shabab you're still unmuted oh yeah just saying I remember Petua Petua spoke so beautifully at Juneteenth last year I just was remembering you know it's I'm reminded of I think from the bible the youth shall leave them but thank you yeah yeah I think so yeah so just getting the right leaders to get to lead these discussions is I think really important and I think what Dr. Mr. Dr. Shepads is saying is that there's a lot of people out there that can help us and I think our role as the human rights commission should be a place where people can feel trusted to come to no matter who they are which is I think really important for our mission so I think that's a good idea I think we should start with closed forms though first that's my idea so that goes back to the question then of if there are entities that reach out to young people so through our schools right now we know this week the plan for the schools is to allow for people to speak to counselors to speak to the family center to speak to a lot of people who can be helpful and that was a plan that was just developed this past week you know one of the things that is a little bit tricky is we can't these larger entities don't move on a dime and we therefore need to come up with something that can be done over a period of time and and get their buy-in especially if they already have a connection to a population that that should be having perhaps that small forum talk where it's to each other before it broadens out and so that goes back to my question of who do we partner with right now and say we think this is an important time we think that you are able to reach people who need to be heard and who need to kind of figure out a way forward in such a way that that information will get back to people who can act on it and so that that means for example not none of us are perfect and there are police officers who have made mistakes and continue to make mistakes in Amherst there are also you know I'm I'm told that there was an officer last Saturday who you know as people are yelling is just walking around giving water giving Gatorade trying to kind of say look but we're here to support you and we are here to serve you you're protesting police I get it you're protesting at a horrible horrible situation and that's a horrible situation you have every right to protest and we want to let you know that we are still here to serve this community so you know how do we make sure that those uh voices that are protesting are heard by the people who say look I want to respond to that and leave me that I have um I'm trying to act in good faith I'm trying to do something better and um and as you just said Petra that people should feel like no matter who you are you can come to us that sometimes means that that people who are in positions of authority who um you know may have people under their their authority who aren't always doing the right thing they might want to come and say well look how do we get to be part of that conversation so um the question for me is how do we both make sure that there's a space where people can talk to each other in smaller groups and then get that message across somewhat quickly so that people who work in the town of Amherst and who want to serve everyone in the town of Amherst are able to do so I'm I'm wondering if just in light of the time um if I could make a motion that we put on the agenda for our next meeting an opportunity to um really talk about logistics and strategy um and commit to coming up with a way to move this forward this idea that we're discussing and I'd like to um consider if uh someone from Bridges for Unity would um come to the next meeting and participate with us in that discussion that that sounds great to me I'm just I'm not sure if the um Dr. and Dr. Shabazz um had heard that I unmuted so they should be able to hear and they should be able to um regardless um everyone should feel comfortable reaching out and inviting uh others yes and that was yes yes yes so um we we can reach out to Bridges for Unity we're actually having our own coming together across three states on zoom this um this week that will discuss the the current events and what's going on so that'll be between Kentucky um South Carolina and here in Massachusetts and so we will facilitate our own kind of discussion because we've kind of trained one another so anyone doesn't have to be the Shabazz's it could be Paula but if y'all are interested in just you know learning more about what we do and having that as a possibility for facilitation with whatever group and whatever form then we can invite someone from there most certainly or you can you can reach out to Paula yourself okay thank you Dr. Shabazz we're going to be losing um uh again everyone might still be in the area um but we're going to be losing the infrastructure of the school system in a couple of weeks as well and so by the time we meet again that that aspect of the infrastructure I don't know that necessarily entirely goes away but um the the ability to partner and utilize that to reach out to a broad array of young people who are connected with the school system that aspect goes away a bit um so I just want to bring that up um but there's very little we can do about the fact that that you know it made sense to try to determine what essential aspects of town government were in order to kind of keep the lights on uh back in March um I wish that we had been considered uh essential in in kind of that way uh given how disparate uh disparately people are affected by things as decisions were made um although I will say with all the other things I've had going on I have not been attending town council meetings I have not been uh you know attending every meeting that that the town has because there's a lot of other stuff happening too um but I I want to thank everyone for coming tonight and for uh trying to think through what our next steps can be and who we can partner with uh and and who we can support and I think that we have some other things to think about in the next two-week period before we meet up again but there are things that give me confidence that we can move something forward and we can be part of uh finding solutions to um some of the unease if not solutions to the overarching problems right now I just want to double check so um I made that motion that we put this on the agenda for our next meeting and that we invite for you yeah as as I said um uh I we can put that on the agenda you don't need to move to put that on the agenda that's we're all good just just tell me it's on you um you'd want to have that on the agenda um when we send out the agenda in advance and say are we missing anything if it's not there say you're missing this uh and and it gets on there that's it's thank you you know it's beyond me what we have to motion and what we don't have to motion I'm like doctor and dr Shabazz do you have your hand up again or is that from previous oh sorry that was from previous okay sorry perfect no that's fine perfect so and also any idea send them in and or share them out to the group right so it's not really helpful if somebody has this world of information and then we don't all know about it so whatever ideas that you have that you want to share or thoughts of what we can do so we can kind of get the ball rolling you know there was a concern that you know we don't meet again for another two weeks and then if we don't have a plan then then we don't meet another again for another month or two weeks so we kind of have to simultaneously make try to make this happen or get to a certain point by the time we meet again right because otherwise we're going to be in like July or August before we get anything going well and and I'd also just point out that all of you are serving on the human rights commission because you are phenomenal people who are already engaged and want to be engaged in the community this should not stop you from being those phenomenal people be be who you are and and continue to work with others if you can bring some of that back to us and let us reflect some of the shine that is you we are happy with that but if if you are shining on your own too that's fantastic keep doing that keep being you all right so we're meeting in two weeks thank you everybody sorry to keep you on for two and a half hours but but we will see you soon think about about what you want those next steps to look like and think about people you want to be plugged into that and so we can we need a motion to adjourn we do need a motion to adjourn before you do that i just wanted to throw out petua if you'd be willing to just gather ideas from your your peers um and and shoot those out in email too that that'd be yeah that was my plan for the next steps so it's reaching out to the youth and also reaching out to the thank you thank you for everything you shared tonight i really appreciate your perspective so the only thing we can't do is we can't talk about something that we need to make a decision on in order to kind of deliberate if you have things that you want to put on the agenda and you want to give us information on why uh that should be on the agenda you can do that and you can share that with everybody what you cannot do is say this is something we need to be thinking about and this is something and i want to hear your thoughts let um you know please respond because then then we're in a meeting and that's something that the open meeting law doesn't allow for but otherwise please feel free to share the information that you have and be supportive of each other if there's stuff that you guys need to somehow informally talk about or whatever if you reply or respond or send the email to me if each individual does that then that avoids the open meeting law right so that's what we can't avoid the open meeting law for the the record oh yes right we're not trying to avoid it but it's just in compliance with the open meeting laws that's been in compliance with the open meeting law but again we like we're not going to meet for another two weeks and there's a lot to be done and we have to get it done without meeting some of that some most of it so again but but we don't it's not the commission necessarily getting it done it's individuals in the town of amherst that happen to be involved and engaged and and i appreciate that and if if you share things with people who are individuals in the town of amherst and say here's a way you can get engaged right now you can do that as long as it's not something that's supposed to come through the commission and that the commission should be thinking about and doing itself does that make sense information sharing not dialogue yeah you can or dialogue about stuff that anyone would be having dialogue about it's it's not something that the human rights commission has to decide to do thank you all right thanks everybody um there was a motion i thought i saw um so deb has moved for uh adjournment uh all in favor uh that's unanimous thank you everybody and i'll see you in a couple weeks if not before so nice to see you all