Board Statement on Capitol Violence
When your Township commissioners took their oaths of office, they stood in front of the flag of the United States of America and swore to uphold the Constitution, not a king or a president or a party or a specific ideology or philosophy, but a living document that forms the back bone and heart and soul of what America is and what we are as Americans. Recently a group of protesters crossed the Rubicon by storming the United States Capitol Building in an attempt to physically disrupt and terminate an important congressional proceeding. Some were lawmakers themselves, freely elected to represent all of their constituents to, if nothing else, protect their constituents’ rights under the Constitution. And yet, a number of them put their own personal interests ahead of their duty to protect our Constitutional rights and, instead, made an attempt to subvert and block the process of free elections, a process that placed each one of them in office in the first place, and a process that is an inviolate component of what has made our democratic republic function for the past two hundred and thirty one years.
The assault also not only laid bare the prevalence and danger of the white supremacy element that exists far too much within in our country, it highlighted again how many in our society and law enforcement view protesting by marginalized people of color in contrast to a crowd rife with white nationalists proudly celebrating violence and criminal acts. The Board has been recently undertaking important work to ensure equity in all forms within our township, and events like these only reinforce the significance of those efforts.
As your elected public officials, we hereby reaffirm our obligation to our Constitution and to the trust that you, our constituents, have placed in us to protect the equal rights of each and every one of you, to provide necessary police protection to ensure safekeeping and freedom from undue harm, to guard against transgressions of basic human rights, and to help make our community the best it can be by supporting the health, education and livelihoods of one and all. We also stand behind our brothers and sisters who have put themselves in harm’s way defending our country overseas, defending the rights of our citizens on our streets, and, most recently, defending our exercise of free elections against a self-interested and violent horde.
Last but not least, we are privileged and thank our constituents for allowing us the opportunity to serve as your elected officials and, particularly in these trying times, to help make our community a better place to live and prosper.
