The officers of the 4th Congressional District Democratic Executive Committee today issued a statement on racial injustice and recent nationwide civil unrest.
"Our hearts break as we witness the oppression of our friends, our family, and our neighbors. We’re saddened as we hear the language of fear, loss, and trauma in our community. We’re dispirited as we grapple with these genuine expressions of legitimate frustration over deep structural issues in our society. "We send our sincere condolences to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and to all the other families of those who we’ve lost to racial violence and police brutality. We must be clear and we must be emphatic: Black Lives Matter. "We cannot expect our society to heal until we reckon with the historic racial injustice that continues to pervade our society today. We proudly stand with all those who courageously exercise their First Amendment right to peacefully protest and raise awareness of our society’s recurrent failure to enact meaningful reform. "It is incumbent upon us to confront our nation’s wretched history of hatred and injustice. We must recognize how this history has fomented systemic inequality and understand how racial inequities transcend the criminal justice system, to disparately impact health, wealth, and educational outcomes in marginalized communities. "It is difficult to reflect on the pain of so many. We find ourselves confronted with the weight of systemic racial injustice, while we continue to contend with the impact of a global pandemic and the precipitous economic devastation it has wrought. But we cannot allow this pain to erode our hope. We cannot allow this pain to sour our belief in the promise of progressive change. "As allies, we must listen and we must act to sustain this momentum to bring about real change. We must channel our heightened awareness to demand accountability from our elected officials. And, to paraphrase the guidance of President Barack Obama, we must effectively translate our feelings of sadness and frustration into citizen-led advocacy for specific laws and institutional reform. "It is in this spirit that the 4th Congressional District Democratic Executive Committee will commit itself to the promotion of greater transparency, inclusivity, and diversity. We will also redouble our efforts to help elect leaders at the local, state, and federal levels who will respond to our demand for change. To do this, we need your help.
"We must continue to work together to bring about the change we seek. And we must continue to encourage all of our friends and family to exercise their political voice: VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!"