Letter: Bilal for Williamstown Select Board

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To the Editor:

I am writing to urge Williamstown voters to elect Bilal Ansari to the Williamstown Select Board on Tuesday, May 10. Dr. Ansari has dedicated himself to a life of service, to helping people resolve difficult situations. He listens intently and responds carefully with compassion. He appeals to our best nature. These are essential skills needed at this moment in our town.

Dr. Ansari does not believe that he alone has the solutions to all of the challenges facing our town. Instead, he wants to hear from those comfortable speaking up and also those who, until now, have not felt comfortable nor heard at all. He believes it will take a village to share concerns and work together to make Williamstown a better place for everyone to live and work and grow. But making that happen takes a special type of skilled leadership.

Bilal Ansari is the candidate blessed with that skilled leadership and a stake in our town's quality of life. He has deep roots in this town: his ancestors lived and worked here. He is committed to an approach based in kindness and inclusion. He is the candidate who can and will help us reach a new, inclusive and more equitable chapter in our town's history.

I ask for your vote on May 10 for Bilal Ansari for the Williamstown Select Board. Thank you.

 

Hugh L Guilderson, Ph.D.
Williamstown, Mass.

 

 

 


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Cross-Commonwealth Walk Highlights Fight to Change State Flag

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A small but growing group of activists from around New England on Friday began a planned three-week trek across the commonwealth to deliver a message to Gov. Maura Healey.
 
David Detmold, 69, of Montague, is the leader of an effort to raise awareness about the Massachusetts Indigenous legislative agenda.
 
On Friday afternoon, he took a break after hiking from the New York State line to talk about that agenda in the shadow of the Williamstown Meetinghouse, home of First Congregational Church.
 
Detmold said the group's objectives boil down to three main points: listen to Native nations, defend sacred homelands, honor all people.
 
On the first goal, a major point of emphasis is a decades-long campaign to change the Massachusetts state flag.
 
As the group makes its way east toward the State House in Boston, it is handing out literature explaining some of its causes, including one that breaks down the objectionable elements of the commonwealth's seal, which adorns the flag.
 
One element that jumps out: the image of what appears to be a colonialist wielding a sword above the image of a Native American.
 
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