In defense of fairness, justice
On Sept. 22, I spoke at the Uniontown City Council meeting. I am excited to share that democracy won that night!
I spoke out in defense of fairness and justice for public transparency and constituent respect; other residents and property owners challenged the policies and practices of the public comment procedures at the meetings. Another resident asked about the status of missing money at the treasurer’s office.
Democracy won because city stakeholders got to express their voices and demand answers for the record.
For almost two years, I have been virtually watching or actively advocating in City Council meetings for silenced voices in Uniontown. It has been a labor of love because I am exercising my citizenship as a Pennsylvanian and as an American. If we can’t speak up and serve our fellow neighbors, what does citizenship really look like?
On Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 6:30 p.m, The We Can’t Wait PA Statewide Coalition will be hosting a community town hall meeting in Uniontown; required registration is mandatory. You can email carmina.a.taylor@gmail. We will be talking about why citizenship and democracy matters at this moment in Uniontown. We will be encouraging everyone to exercise their citizenship by being actively engaged in helping one another in Uniontown, where they can. I hope you will join us.
My group was founded and inspired by Martin Luther King’s first book, “Why We Can’t Wait.” While he was jailed in Birmingham, he was criticized for coming into a community in which he was not from. In his pensive moments he had these thoughts:
“I challenged those who had been persuaded that I was an ‘outsider.’ I pointed out that Fred Shuttlesworth’s Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights was an affiliate of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and that the Shuttlesworth group had asked S.C.L.C. to come to Birmingham, and that as president of S.C.L.C., I had come in the interests of aiding an S.C.L.C. affiliate.
“I expanded further on the weary and worn ‘outsider’ charge, which we have faced in every community where we have gone to try to help. No Negro, in fact, no American, is an outsider when he goes to any community to aid the cause of freedom and justice. No Negro anywhere, regardless of his social standing, his financial status, his prestige and position, is an outsider so long as dignity and decency are denied to the humblest Black child in Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia.
“The amazing aftermath of Birmingham, the sweeping Negro Revolution, revealed to people all over the land that there are no outsiders in all these fifty states of America. When a police dog buried his fangs in the ankle of a small child in Birmingham, he buried his fangs in the ankle of every American. The bell of man’s inhumanity to man does not toll for any one man. It tolls for you, for me, for all of us.”
I am no outsider when I come into Uniontown, for if one of us is harmed, all of us is harmed! We can’t wait for justice; we have to continue to fight for justice!
Carmina Taylor, Founder
We Can’t Wait PA Statewide Coalition