[[link removed]]

John--

A Statement from LD-25 State Senate candidate Rupande Mehta-

I mourn the death of George Floyd. I am sickened and disheartened at the actions of an individual acting on behalf of the law. It is past overdue to stop the injustice and systemic racism that have been allowed to exist. Our law enforcement needs the tools and resources to ensure such tragedies do not happen again. 

Communities of color are hurting across our district. We need to listen and learn. While I cannot even begin to understand their experience, I stand with our Black community in the fight for justice. 

We need to come together to stand against the bias and hatred that black Americans face every day. 

Black lives matter.



A Statement from Mayor Carolyn Blackman of Dover -

Many of you have been wondering where is Mayor Blackman? It took me time to process my feelings physically and emotionally during the last few days, and I am here today.

I hope this message finds you and your family healthy and safe. We live in times that challenge us on every level. The COVID-19 pandemic has terrorized us for months, shattering the lives of so many right here in our own community. 

Although each of us has been affected by it in different ways, none of us are immune from its ever-present impact.  
While the immediate concern of COVID-19 is for our physical safety, social distancing has taken a toll on our mental and emotional health. It has strained our relationships. The lack of face to face interaction, handshakes and hugs, has cost us the human touch, which fosters trust, understanding, and empathy. Without those things, it is no wonder so many have fallen into despair, distrust, and disunity.

With that as the backdrop, and as that still novel situation unfolds, we must yet again address a challenge that has plagued our nation for more than 4 centuries, race relations.
Again, like many of you, I have been significantly affected by the history of race relations in our country in very personal ways. 

I was raised in Virginia along with my 11 brothers and sisters. To survive, we woke up at 4 am to work for $2.00 an hour before school at a white man’s farm to help feed the family. Then, after school, we came home to do back-breaking work in my father’s fields, picking cotton and tobacco, planting and maintaining the garden, and tending to the animals. My father could not afford a machine to separate the seeds from the cotton, so we picked seeds by hand until our fingers bled. I grew up in the era of Segregation when black schools were nothing more than sheds with outhouses. 

In public we had white bathrooms and colored bathrooms. As terrible as Segregation was, it was not the real problem; it was a symptom of the disease of racism. A disease of despair, distrust, and disunity born of ignorance that continues to plague us to this day.

My parents taught us to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. So they brought us to Washington, D.C. to march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and we were a part of the civil rights movement. We did it for ourselves. We did it for our yet unborn children. We did it for all people of color, our nation as a whole, and our collective future.

The civil rights movement made great strides for us; however, I will never forget in the late 1970s when one of my younger brothers never showed up for another brother’s wedding. He simply disappeared.

The next night I woke up in horror as a result of a bad dream, which I shared with my husband. I dreamed my brother was dead. We learned a few days later that he was found shot in the head sitting in the driver’s seat of his car by a lake. The police told our family his death was a suicide. We never believed that story. We had to have his body dug up and examined to discover he was actually shot by someone else.  
You can imagine the pain, fear, frustration, and anger that my family suffered. You can imagine the feelings of powerlessness and helplessness that all people of color feel when faced with injustice. 

We are tired and our hearts are broken that this keeps happening over and over again. Enough is enough. 
It is not good to be stopped by a police officer being a black female, even as a Mayor of a Town in one of the wealthiest counties in our country. I fear for all black and brown children.
My heart aches for George Floyd’s Family, my family, and for the families of all those who have been affected by unjust situations, but we must be the peaceful voice for change or we become part of the problem and not the solution. We must make his death, my brother’s death, and every death in the struggle for justice, matter. I speak directly to George’s family when I say that I understand your pain, because I have lived your pain. I am angry, frustrated, and sad.

However, I ask that you channel all your anger and sorrow towards fostering the peaceful change we need as a nation.
As someone who marched for equality, I understand and respect the right of the people across our nation to assemble, ask questions, make speeches, march, be visible, and carry signs in accordance with the law if you see fit. I only ask that you do it safely, with PPEs, social distancing, peace, dignity, and purpose. We must use those demonstrations to call for a national discussion, healing, and action leading to comprehensive plans to address racial equity once and for all on every level. 

Despite all of my very personal experiences, I remain guided by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I ask that you be guided by him as well, when he said, “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him…Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness.” And “Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”

My Prayer for all is Grace, Mercy, and Peace in these difficult and painful times.

We will all stand together in our town.
We will all hurt together.
We will all work together to find solutions to all the diseases that trouble us.

Thank you.

Mayor Carolyn Blackman









Not in our Chairman's Club? Join HERE and get exclusive discounts to all of our events and access to free Chairman's Club only events. [[link removed]]




Morris County Democratic Committee
51 Gibraltar Drive,
Suite 1F
Morris Plains, NJ 07950
United States

unsubscribe: [link removed]