Comments to the Mt. Diablo Unified School District Board, Wednesday, October 15, 2014.
Good evening
president Oaks, Board, Superintendent Meyer, cabinet, and guests...
My comments
tonight, as they are often, are made in an attempt to share with the board and
the public issues related to human and civil rights, and how they connect with
the lives of our students and the people who live in our community.
Saturday, October 11 was
National Coming Out Day - an annual civil awareness day to recognize members of
the LGBTQIA community, and celebrate coming out. The process of coming out
involves self-disclosure of one's sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Many young people use this day to bravely step out of the darkness and into the
light to announce to people important to them in their lives who they are, who
they love, and what they feel in their heart.
Today is White Cane Safety
Day - an observance celebrated on October 15 to celebrate the achievements of
people who are blind or visually impaired, and the important symbol of
blindness and tool of independence, the white cane. The white cane empowers
those who use it to live a fuller more independent life.
Tomorrow is World Food Day -
big ups to Concord High School as well as the other schools, students, staff,
and community who do what they can to share food with those who might otherwise
go hungry. Our schools, our students , and our district have much to be proud
of on this note. From food grown on our campuses and in our community gardens,
to ever present donation barrels in our hallways and district buildings. From
those who buy a little extra every month and donate it, to those who deliver
the produce from their fruit trees at home to food banks. Too many people in
our community, our nation, and our world go hungry each day, but there are
small steps we can each take to begin to alleviate this.
October 22 is the Day Against
Police Brutality. Police officers dedicate their lives to serving their
communities. It is their duty to protect and serve the people. Many, many, many
of them do just that every day of their careers, but too often, it seems we
read headlines about lives, often young black lives, cut short by acts of
violence carried out by police officers, under questionable circumstances. One
glaring example of this is the shooting death of unarmed black teenager,
Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri in early August. The refrain that has arisen
in the struggle for justice for Mike Brown and many others who fall victim is
"Black Lives Matter."
Everyday we should all work
to keep our communities safe, to band together as a nation, and demand that
everyone who has sworn to protect our citizens and uphold our laws does just
that.
And finally, Friday, October
31 is Halloween, and Halloween is UNICEF day, and many of our schools participate
in Trick or Treat for UNICEF, where at doorsteps, instead of asking for candy,
students collect change, and this is then sent in to UNICEF which uses the
money for children's health, community, and infrastructure projects. Many of
our schools participate, including Leadership classes and Key Clubs - Key Club
is one of the national sponsors of the vent.
I would ask everyone within the
sound of my voice to have a handful of change on hand Halloween night in case
one of the youth in our community greet you at the door with one of those
little orange boxes.
Also, I would like to commend
the district for our continued use of Fair Trade Chocolate. Halloween is the
number one chocolate consumption day in our country. As I have said at this
microphone in the past, more than 75% of the world's chocolate it tainted by
child slavery due to the use of child slaves in the country of Cote D'Ivoire.
But several years ago now our district made the commitment to use only Fair
Trade certified chocolate in all on site baking. I want to continue to thank
you for this.
And also, there are only 20 Days until the November election, and Your Vote
Always Counts.
Thank you.
