Amanda Gorman gave a TED Talk the day after she introduced herself to the world us in January. She shared that she had a fear of public speaking.
"I thought if I choose not to speak out of fear, then there's no one that my silence is standing for," she revealed.
Silence stands up for no one.
Let me talk to you, personally here. My son is starting pre-school this year at USD 383, and so I have a personal stake in what goes on in our school district. I am a Christian. In fact, many of you here on this email list sit next to me in church each Sunday. But this movement to push religion into our public schools is a slippery slope. And "concern" is an appropriate response. Our school board's functions go well beyond the single issue of diversity. Budgets, staff retention, students' success, public health, these are just a few of what the school board loses sleep over. But let me, for a moment, address what the other side is fervently making the sole issue. Colorblindness doesn't work. I know because, like Christine Weixelman's son, I was adopted into an all-white family. My parents and family members didn't see me as Asian, just as Christine doesn't see her son's different skin color. But you know who did see me as different? The woman who stopped me in a parking lot to ask me if I was a US Citizen. And you know who will see the next person different? The law enforcement officer who's a student in USD 383 right now and who is going to pull over Christine's son someday in a traffic stop. I want to dismantle structural racism so that everyone has a fair chance.
Please vote in the USD 383 school board primary. This is not the time to stay silent.