Leonard Campbell: Sad to see Human Relations Committee becoming political football

To The Daily Sun,

Sad to see the Human Relations Committee becoming a political football trying to serve the Laconia community.

The HRC started when a group of people in Laconia spoke up after a member of the community experienced hate because of his work erecting the “The Defiant One,” the iconic totem defining Opechee Park.

Its work expanded and responded to the influx of refugees resettled by outside agencies into Laconia so they could not only become new Americans but also be an interdependent part of the social fabric that has defined Laconia since the French-Canadians and Irish immigrants settled in the city to work in the different mills.

The work of many volunteers with the HRC has given the city its Martin Luther King Day to remember why freedom for all is necessary; and the multicultural festival that celebrates the rich diversity that has allowed Laconia to grow, prosper and express its various traditions.

Amidst all these efforts, and especially starting in the early part of this century when I was chair of the HRC, individuals started pushing back against the historical efforts of the city’s influx of refugees and immigrants. Isolationism and protectionism were voiced as the efforts to scapegoat others grew.

And now with diversity, equity and inclusion misstated and efforts to consolidate power among a few individuals grows, the Human Relations Committee is become the scapegoat and object of concern for all this growing fear that others are going to take over.

We all have been part of the change that has occurred in Laconia. We all have been the voices that have worked to define freedom for all. We all have enjoyed a freedom that is truly free when everyone is respected and so "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

Leonard Campbell

Meredith