OPEN LETTER FROM MONMOUTH COUNTY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION CHAIR
I am angry. I am angry that there are increasingly disturbing incidents and
events that point to a community that is failing to live up to the level of
respect and appreciation for diversity that we should expect to prevail in the
21st century. Far too many have made great sacrifices—for some, enormous
amounts of devoted time, for others, their very lives—to ensure justice and
equity for all people.
I am angry that we are regressing socially. Recently, I had a dream in which a
huge tidal wave covered the building where I was vacationing. I remained safe
and dry inside, but it was frighteningly disastrous outside. Just before I had
awakened, I started to see leaks coming into the building from small cracks in
the foundation, and I then knew that it was only a matter of time before my
safety turned to pure peril. The danger in the climate we are in today is that
this regression away from respect and appreciation for diversity is slow and
subtle, chipping away at the core of a foundation that has taken extraordinary
efforts to build.
It is no longer as popular as it has been to fight on the side of equity and
justice for all. In fact, we are slowly surrendering the struggles of diversity
not to what should be the right rule, but to mob rule. Examples of the subtle
and chipping erosion of fundamental respect and appreciation for diversity are
ostensible in reports about the attempted dissolution of a local human rights
commission (HRC), physical assaults on individuals because of their culture,
issues of racial disparity among educators and leaders in our institutions of
learning—K-12 and postsecondary, socioeconomic wars with municipalities
failing to meet housing obligations mandated by law, veiled housing codes that
exclude groups of people based on their ethnicity, refusals of individuals and
organizations to consider accessibility for all, casual and too familiar usage
of the N-word, published attacks on segments of people based on their ethnicity,
and myriad other instances where people just do not get it!
Despite my anger, I am grateful to be affiliated with the members of the
Monmouth County Human Relations Commission. The cross-section of members
committed to educating violators of basic human rights to the point that they
get it is a valuable asset to our community and our humanity. We must persevere
through this adverse climate of erosion, taking steps to seal the cracks that
threaten the foundation of equity and justice for all.
To this end, I appeal to all human relations commissioners at county and local
levels, as well as true advocates and supporters of diversity to be loud and
visible—particularly loud and visible at town meetings, at board meetings, in
op-ed columns, on blogs, and at ad hoc rallies. We need all hands on deck. We
need you now to be active and vigilant to help us heal painful and hurtful
wounds!
Earl Thomas Teasley, Chair
Monmouth County Human Relations Commission
3000 Kozloski Road, Freehold, NJ 07728
September 20, 2008