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I want to publicly say thank you to the Centralia City Council members, especially Councilor Kelly Smith Johnston, who initiated the first meeting with our group and reached out to us after what I considered to be racist remarks by the chief of police during a city council meeting a few months back.
Johnston mentioned it during our first Zoom call (she was overwhelmed) and humbly and openly listened to our concerns. We all saw that she is sincerely passionate about the issues and wanted to make a difference. Even though the conversation might have been uncomfortable, she listened to each of our stories about how people of color and LGBTQ are being treated.
We saw and heard empathy.
As a result of her efforts, we have two more city council members, Rebecca Staebler and Cameron McGee, which we are very grateful for and appreciative of their time.
Truly Councilor Kelly Smith Johnston, we are blessed to have her working to address the issues of racism and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion to make Centralia and Lewis County a very welcoming and better place.
My hope is other towns such as Morton can follow the city of Centralia's lead by reaching out to Johnston, Rebecca Staebler and Cameron McGee. I am very humbled and appreciative of the three city council members who are working with us and the community to address the unfortunate and well overdue issues of racism against people of color, LGBTQ and multiracial children and parents.
I am hopeful for the progress and the hard work that the city of Centralia and the Centralia Police Department are making in a short time toward making Lewis County a better place for everyone and our future generations. Keep up the great job.
This is truly an example of a community coming together to work towards the same goals even though we might not agree, but we can compromise on projects. Just last year I felt as though our concerns and our voices were falling on deaf ears to officials, but Kelly Smith Johnston has proven that wrong, and I am appreciative of her.
It is a nice feeling knowing that there will be the light at the end of tunnel rather then darkness on the political side, and of course having a new administration in office that doesn't encourage racism, pledges equality for all regardless of who and has the first African American, Asian and female as vice president and talking about peace rather than Jan. 6 events is comforting.
The process being made with the city council and the community group would have not happened without everyone who has been involved. Thank you everyone. Together we can go further. Have a safe and healthy day.
Sarah Brown
Washington State Area Coordinator with Amnesty International
