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REGULAR MEETING JULY, 10, 2006
<br />she pushed her off. It was funny until she came around to where she had landed, her eyes
<br />met hers, she can remember it to this day. She stated that she had hurt another human
<br />being for no other reason than that she was who she was. There was no teacher to correct
<br />her, none of her friends disapproved, but she knew and Letha knew, what she did was
<br />wrong. The Council, as adults, Americans, as elected leaders in the community know
<br />that discrimination is wrong. The tied is turning and the nation is moving towards justice
<br />on this issue. Thank God, for courageous politicians who have dared to do the right thing
<br />in spite of opposition. Heroes take risks, she hoped that the Council would act heroically
<br />tonight. For some, it may be a faith issue, she knows that good people of faith disagree
<br />about homosexuality. The argument will go on for some time no doubt, meanwhile, what
<br />about Civil Rights for everyone. That’s what this is about, the Council is not voting
<br />tonight about approving or disapproving whether people are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or
<br />transgendred. The Council is voting to ensure that basic civil rights for all people who
<br />live in South Bend. Many people have worked hard to bring this topic to this point. Is it
<br />worth the effort, yes, she believes that it is. She stated that she grew up in Louisiana in
<br />the 1950’s and 1960’s, she did not know the law, but she knew the way things worked.
<br />She saw it all around her, and the signs that clearly indicated who was welcomed and
<br />who was not in public places. The jokes she heard at home and at school, and the ways
<br />her parents and all the other adults she knew spoke to and about the minority groups in
<br />her town. Did the laws enacted change all that? Not overnight , still it was clear that a
<br />new day was coming. Now when she goes home all the outward visible vestiges of racist
<br />closed society are gone. Are there racist people there now, you bet there are! But here is
<br />the difference, it is no longer okay to be racists. The society at large no longer approves
<br />of it! The Council’s yes vote tonight, will say to this community, that it is no longer
<br />acceptable to discriminate. Continued inaction and silence gives permission to most
<br />violate forces within the Community to act without fear of consequence. It gives those
<br />who discriminate in more subtle way, permission to continue to do so. The Council’s yes
<br />vote tonight, shows everyone in this Community that they recognize the rights of all
<br />citizens and protect those rights for everyone. The universe leans towards justice, and
<br />South Bend is only one small part of a movement, that began long before any of us were
<br />born and will continue long after we are all gone. In our country, it began for the right
<br />for freedom, and liberty for white men who owned property. Another war gave freedom
<br />to men, women and children of color. The suffrage movement followed and those
<br />women’s were ridiculed. And then the Civil Rights Movement, will eventually mean that
<br />GLBT people would be included as well. Over the last 230 years have learned what it
<br />means to live more fully into the words that we have know since we were children and
<br />stood and said together at the beginning of this meeting. I pledge allegiance to the Flag
<br />of the United States of American, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation,
<br />under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be among those who mean
<br />those words.
<br />Debra Davis, 13024 Pierce Road, Wakarusa, Indiana, stated that she works in the South
<br />Bend Community. She has been reading and hearing people state their opinions that
<br />tonight people are asking for special rights. She is here tonight to disagree with that
<br />statement. She comes to represent those of those that live with the fact that society does
<br />not understand their daily struggle. Most desire the same things all human’s desire. The
<br />basic freedoms for which many people continue to die. There are three basic needs that
<br />she believes we all have. These are to love and be loved so deeply, that your hurts, joys
<br />and lives become one. To devote and give yourself to the well being of others. To work
<br />hard, so that at the end of the day, you can say to yourself that you did a good job, today,
<br />that you are proud and what you have accomplished and earned a paycheck. She believes
<br />that most of us deep down desire those basic needs be fulfilled. So what you as a Council
<br />are voting on tonight is not a special right for anyone. The language here tonight asking
<br />to be added to the ordinance, does one thing for many, it frees those to devote 100% of
<br />themselves to their places of employment. This language does this by removing the fear
<br />that is settled in back of many minds. The fear that they could lose their jobs tomorrow,
<br />if the wrong person finds outs who they love. The need to guard every word spoken in
<br />the break room or in the staff meeting, for fear someone might figure something out and
<br />then have to pay the consequence. An example in her life, was that she was working in a
<br />group home for the mentally challenged. A female co-worker overheard a conversation
<br />that she had on her phone with her significant other, with whom she has been with for
<br />over seventeen years. She realized that she was a lesbian, and decided that since she and
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