“In America, protest is patriotic” is the title of a June 2 editorial in the New York Times. It is a thoughtful piece that touches on the incendiary state of our nation this week as protests sweep the country in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.
The editorial notes the role of authoritarian pushback against peaceful protesters as well as attacks on journalists. It underscores the fact that our Constitution guarantees us the right to freedom of speech and to assembly to express dissatisfaction with the actions of our elected leaders. The New York Times editorial board includes mention of the many places across the nation where law enforcement officials knelt and marched in solidarity with those who were protesting racial injustice and unequal treatment before the law.
That’s the larger national picture – the macrocosm. Let’s take this reasoning and sentiments down to the local level, the microcosm. Protesting is a form of public participation in the process of how we govern ourselves. It is a way to seek change and redress of grievances. It’s a way to affect change.
Bringing this down to the local level, in the months since the Harwood Unified Union School District budget was resoundingly voted down on Town Meeting Day in March, the board has held multiple public hearings on how, when and what budget to bring back to voters. Despite the digital nature of the meetings, there’s been strong public participation and thoughtful public comment from the community.
The result is a budget that will come back to voters on June 16 that now has strong, public support from several community groups and multiple individuals that had vocally opposed it in March. Those folks have now endorsed the proposed budget.
This is not to suggest that a school budget is in any way similar to the systemic racism that has rent the fabric of our nation and continues to do so. It’s to point out the fact that allowing free and open public participation, either by protesting in the streets or protesting proposed plans to consolidate our middle schools, is a tool for change.
And it’s patriotic.
