As some of you may have noticed over the last couple weeks, the West River Community Project unfurled a Black Lives Matter banner that will be indefinitely displayed on the second floor balcony of the West Townshend Country Store.
This decision, unanimously approved by both the board of directors and the staff of the WRCP, is one very small step that the WRCP can and should take in order to show our solidarity with a critical social movement to fight injustice against people of color and the brutal effects of systemic racism in our nation and in our communities.
Several weeks ago, “Black Lives Matter is Racist” was spray-painted in Newfane on Route 30, in our own West River Valley.
Let me be very clear. The Black Lives Matter movement is not racist - it is a movement intended to lift up people of color in their fight for racial equality. It is a worthwhile movement. It does not mean that anyone else's lives do not matter. Period.