It was good to read that the 50th Annual Mayor’s Community Breakfast was a success. I am glad this Newton tradition exists to celebrate and re-affirm shared community values about unity, belonging, and mutual respect and understanding. As the Mayor said in her remarks, all this is especially important now with the backdrop of a war that touches so many close to home.
I hope among the many different Newton leaders and officials who attended the Community Breakfast, there are those who are also willing to raise their voices to speak up clearly and firmly whenever these same values are violated in our City — as they so plainly were by the vociferous and offensive agitators who disrupted the Library’s planned reception for photographer Skip Schiel on May 9th. As an attendee who was both inside and outside the building that evening, I witnessed the chaotic spectacle unfold firsthand.
Everyone’s blanket silence in the weeks since then speaks loudly and saddens me. The loud, ugly, angry voices in Newton may be few, but it is the silence by everyone else that invites and amplifies the worst and most threatens our community’s shared harmony and common humanity.
Sarah Rahman
Auburndale