Violence in our city is a tragedy that is threatening to become routine. It is both a cause and a symptom of so many intractable problems in Mansfield. There aren’t obvious solutions, there aren’t answers. I’m a school teacher, I don’t think there’s anyone outside of family that feels it like teachers do because many of us know kids that have perished in gun violence in our city.
With tragedy after tragedy, there is need for eloquence, there is need for hope and inspiration. I’ll never discount that. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about right now. After a shooting everyone wants to make a difference, people come together, and there are calls for change and peace. People are frustrated by this process because it has not come with results.
I think there’s a lot everyone agrees on, the things we need and the things we need to change. A rise in gun violence has followed directly from a rise in gun sales. There are more guns on the streets than ever before and they’re getting in the hands of people they shouldn’t and they’re getting into the hands of children. We have to get guns off our streets. We cannot let carrying a gun be the new normal for Mansfield youth, it heightens and escalates everything.
Prevention programs like Peace on My Block, efforts to teach kids how to talk about violence, to talk to adults, tell someone when something is not right are a start but not enough. We have to work at finding ways to break down barriers between groups of people.
We need staffed parks, programs in our parks, safe places for kids to be kids. Whether that is a role of the city or non-profits or schools or businesses, we need to come together for real solutions. We used to have a mall, a bowling alley, a skating rink and these were safe spaces for children to be and that wasn’t the government. We’ve lost that but it’s something we can get back.
And there’s accountability. We need to be appropriately accountable for our own actions and build a culture of accountability across our city. Parents need to be accountable for their children, but they are not alone. Our government officials have to be accountable to the people they serve. It takes a village to raise a child so we all are responsible for our city, for our streets and neighborhoods and houses.
We need a fully staffed police force and I believe there’s a lot we can do to recruit police, doing more to identify candidates to become police and see them through the process. If we rely only on those who self-select into the police force we’ll continue to struggle to meet staffing requirements. This city is full of good people who would make good police, people from the community. It is time for new directions.
More police, more policing, is not an answer to an epidemic of violence. Police cannot directly prevent these sorts of crimes, not often. But they can prevent other crimes, especially property crimes. And most importantly, they can help create an environment that feels safe.
No one should ignore the role that poverty, concentrated poverty, is playing in our city. It is a source of so much stress and pain. Mansfield doesn’t offer the same opportunity it did at one time. For many people, they don’t see a future in Mansfield for their children or even for themselves. We have to work to create opportunity and contend against hopelessness or cynicism. That means delivering real, tangible, broad based economic development. It cannot be about making the city more comfortable for the well to do, it has to be about the people of Mansfield, the people who live here.
Many of us agree that the violence must end. But what it comes down to is having the determination and will to make it happen. City leaders need perseverance and commitment to do everything possible to end the bloodshed. We all need to understand what is on the line and what is happening in the lives of average people. To be quite honest, we haven’t had that. Seeing this suffering and the failure to act by those who are empowered to act is infuriating. I need us to change our tone deaf current leadership because we can’t continue like this. Suffering and violence compound. We need to act now, we need change.
I may not be able to promise results, like I said I don’t think anyone has an obvious answer to this, that’s just not how it works. But I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, what you can expect of me, and I expect you to hold me accountable. I’m going to tell the truth and work for change, I know we can do better and I’m not going to give up on our town.
If I’m elected Mayor the people of Mansfield are going to know me. I’m going to go block to block, neighborhood to neighborhood, and I’m going to talk to people. I’m going to ask who watches over this street, who do you turn to when there is a problem or need help and I’m going to get to know those people. By the end of my first year there will not be a street of Mansfield I have not walked down. People are going to know who I am and they’re going to know how to reach me. Folks in Mansfield will get clear answers and the truth as far as I can tell. Citizens will also have a listening ear. If things are going wrong, if something is up, I’m going to make sure I find out about it. You can’t run a city, you can’t solve any problems, if you don’t know what’s really going on.
I’ve called my campaign a People First campaign and I mean that in more ways than one. Mansfield is its people. We cannot make Mansfield better without empowering the people of Mansfield, supporting them, letting them lead, helping them to make their neighborhoods, their communities, the best they can be. We start solving problems when we start listening to the people of Mansfield, start talking to each other, start working together. And that’s what we have to do here. It’s got to be a decision of all of us to save our city, to ensure our future, to protect the people who live here. It has to be a decision because it requires commitment, determination, and endurance. I can’t imagine us doing anything less. Lives are on the line.
In times of trouble, I pray. Many years ago I learned the Prayer of St. Francis as a choral piece. That song has been going through my mind since Saturday:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
I hope you can join me in the content of these words, whether you pray or not. It is only in making a commitment to peace that we find it.
Sherry For Mayor 