Board of Aldermen 05-25-2021 Page 5
That was a large part of the concern that has held Public Health from making more immediate updates to the
masking ordinance. Just because somebody else is doing something doesn’t mean it is a good idea to do it.
Just because the cities and municipalities around us follow the Governor’s lead and not the Governor’s medical
advisors’ leads regarding the masking ordinance doesn’t mean that we as Nashuans don’t want to care for our
children, so it’s important for us to consider that.
If people have been putting it off and just haven’t gotten around to it, because I’ve a heard a number of people
saying, OH gee, yeah | should get on that now’. It is time to shift gears. There isn’t a waiting list, you can
schedule an appointment but you don’t have to be under a certain age limited; as adults get vaccinated. You
will reduce the amount of likelihood that somebody else will get it from you by reducing the likelihood that you
will get it. And it is important to do that for all of the members of our community, including the most vulnerable.
This particular pandemic has been characterized by the most vulnerable. | appreciate all the Nashuans who
have really made massive changes and sacrifices to their lives in order to protect those most vulnerable and |
think that is a testament to our ideology as a community.
As the Mayor also mentioned, we have been experiencing, tagging vandalism, more specifically white
supremacy messages in Ward 4. People who have been on the Board for a while this is not a shocker to you. |
have announced as far back as | can recall, | think probably 4 years ago, there were concerns among
neighbors about whether they were going to be deported because there were those comments being put in the
community. There were stickers being put out, there were comments being made. We've seen pushback
against Black Lives Matter where that message is black lives matter too and it’s not good enough for people
like they have to make a point of saying all lives matter and try to challenge the position that Black Lives Matter
is trying to say that there are inconsistencies in how police conduct is applied. There are statistical anomalies
in terms of over representation and that we need to address that. So this is not a brand new experience.
What is brand new is that a State Representative called out the public about it and brought attention to the
issue and members of the public felt entitled to challenge that Representative’s legitimacy based completely on
his name. So the lack of person insight that will compel a person to address a comment about white
supremacy being a thing and systemic racism still existing with a response basically saying, yes and you are a
problem and therefore we need to motivate you and remove all of your people because you are occupying our
land is fantastically inappropriate. It is a problem for our community, it is a danger, it is something that Nashua
P.D. and the F.B.I. do take very seriously and have been working very closely with us on.
As neighbors, we have been painting those murals repeatedly over and over again because it is important not
to just paint over a problem but to create something in its place. So we haven't just covered over the murals
when somebody puts a tag on there. We have enhanced them, we have updated, we have made them better.
We will continue to do that, we have plenty of paint. That’s what the neighborhood is all about and there’s a lot
more artists in this neighborhood than your average neighborhood so we can handle this as a community but
what is important is that Nashua know that this is happening and | think what’s very important is that there
have been a lot of other communities that have been saying the same thing; whether it is the synagogues,
whether it is the immigrant community. These people have been targeted and they are not alone in their being
targeted, they have that shared goal. | think all of us share the sentiment that that’s not Nashua; that’s not
appropriate and that’s now what our City is all about. So hopefully we can build something out of this instead
of just painting it over.
(Background noise / conversation)
President Wilshire
Thank you Alderman Lopez. Anyone else?
Unidentified Person
Yes, can! ask a question?
