 Hello, everyone. My name is Katel Gellick. I'm a resident of Arlington in District 19 and also a co-chair of Envision Arlington's Diversity Task Group. I appreciate you listening to my statement this evening regarding Warren Article 25, the importance of rehanging a Black Lives Matter banner at Town Hall. Of course, I'm just one person out of many who are advocating for the banner to be reinstated. Many groups have endorsed this action, including the Diversity Task Group, as well as the Arlington Human Rights Commission, the Arlington High School Black Student Union, Arlington Helps Mutual Aid, Arlington Fights Racism, the Mystic Valley Chapter of the NAACP, and specifically, Dee Dee Delgado, who is an anti-racist educator and activist, the founder and former director of Black Lives Matter, Cambridge Chapter. She was also a featured guest speaker for the Town of Arlington's Black Lives Matter Day virtual event hosted by the Human Rights Commission this past summer. Furthermore, an online petition gathered over 350 signatures in the wake of the select board's vote to take down the banner. And for this Warren article, we collected over 200 in-person signatures in just 24 hours. All of this shows the broad support to maintain the banner at Town Hall. I would like to briefly address why I feel this action is so critical for our Town at this time, and some of the concerns that may have arisen around it. This is a moment in our history that cannot be ignored. It is an opportunity to affirm the humanity of Black Lives and to denounce the ongoing ways that Black Americans are systematically oppressed. No town or city is immune from concerns over racial justice. In fact, these are basic human rights. And Arlington has recognized that through its efforts to promote racial equity. These values transcend politics and must not be reduced to left and right, Democrat and Republican, or pro-police and anti-police. These are all distractions from the central message behind Black Lives Matter and are ways that people project their own fears and assumptions onto a banner that gives hope to so many people. Of course, the efforts to change policies to make our schools more inclusive and to bring our community together are all vital. And I know that some people worry that a banner will make us more complacent and somehow infers that the job is now done. But we need to let our town and others know that our outward-facing profile matches the inward-facing actions so it is clear to all where we stand. Arlington does not need to shy away from making this public statement. Rather, it needs to embrace it. Inclusivity for all is important, and hanging a Black Lives Matter banner does not take away from that idea. It encompasses the needs and rights of other marginalized communities, such as the LGBT community, and those who have all affirmed that this is a time in our history when we need to center Black Lives. I also believe a banner creates an emotional connection between the town and its Black and Brown residents. It lets them know they are seen and are an important and valued part of the community. Finally, I was recently asked if we could hang a banner that had different wording, which the town has recently done, saying that Arlington supports many different marginalized groups and is inclusive of diversity in general. There's also been the suggestion that we could hang a banner that says Arlington supports Black Lives rather than a specific Black Lives Matter banner. And to that I respond that as a white person, I really can't answer that question because to do so would be to co-opt a human rights movement that I did not create. It's the voice of Black people seeking equal human rights who can speak to that, and I would encourage the town to keep speaking to and reaching out to its Black and Brown residents to determine if an alternate banner would achieve the same goal. Until then, refusing to re-hang the banner remains a very visible gap in Arlington's commitment to racial justice. Thank you.