Dear West Orange Town Council and Mayor McCartney,

I’m appealing to you about the planned “2nd annual Israeli flag raising at West Orange’s Town Hall in honor of ‘Israel's independence day’” scheduled for April 26th. I implore you to cancel it immediately! As the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, I say, “not in my name.” I don’t celebrate the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) at the hands of ruthless Zionists with the support of the British colonial army. How do you think Palestinians feel when people want to celebrate the day their villages were massacred, their families were driven from their homes, and their land was stolen?

Ronald Rice, a revered, senior political leader and one of the longest-serving state senators in New Jersey passed away on March 15, 2023. He exemplified honor, resilience, and doggedness: an example for friend and foe.

He is remembered with great sadness across the state, but for Public Square Amplified advisory committee members, John Smith and Linda McDonald Carter it is a deeply personal loss.

Yesterday, upon learning of Senator Rice’s death, Linda McDonald Carter delivered raw and personal sentiments in real time at the Newark Municipal Council hearing.

Corporate media stirred up deep dread and apprehension whilst shaping the social and political response of how and what we are to understand and consume in this recent state killing of a human being – Tyre Nichols. 

Major corporate media outlets, including public radio, teased out the video of the latest killing of a Black man by police as they would a major blockbuster movie or a ride in a Bezos or Musk spaceship. The narrative braced us for an explosion of wanton and rampant destruction, as gatekeepers are never fully convinced that the participants will not bring down the "big top", in its relatively commonplace fashion.

The violent beating of 29-year-old Black-American motorist Tyre Nichols at the hands of five Black police officers in Memphis, Tennessee on Jan. 7, 2023, and leading to his death three days later, might be considered a sobering event in police-race relations, at least in the minds of many Americans. However, for scholars such as I who have studied this topic for decades, it comes as no surprise.

With only a few days left before Election Day, you’ve likely seen flyers or door hangers, received texts or phone calls, and seen the same political ads tens if not hundreds of times. And so it’s important to step back and ask: Why are people pouring all this time, energy, and money into getting you to vote? Not the collective you, the singular you, the you reading these words right now.

On Monday, October 3, 2022, the life of 16-year-old resident Letrell Duncan was tragically cut short by a senseless act of gun violence that has shaken our community to its core.