The Human and Civil Rights of all Americans and people across the world and under siege as most of us have never witnessed, due to the actions of the current administration and their ignorant enablers. We are seeing attempts to roll back hard-won protections for all vulnerable populations, racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, the poor, LBGTQIA individuals, and those with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities. We are seeing the authoritarian subjugation of the fundamental Constitutional rights of every American to protest injustices. As Democratic leaders, we must support and learn from the actions of our colleagues in places from Minneapolis to Los Angeles and in communities across the nation. We must be prepared and we must resist until our Constitutional order is secure.

At this moment, as Democrats we must particularly stand with our Trans and Non-binary neighbors against the inhuman treatment they are subjected to every day by our opposition, and some in our own party should who know better. We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the most cynical scapegoating of vulnerable members of our communities because of political cowardice. We must consistently challenge the false manipulation of facts that underlies these injustices.

Polluters cynically located their activities in poorer communities for decades, specifically Chester and the Delaware River corridor. Stormwater runoff from over development of upstream, generally wealthier communities is causing flooding and economic hardship in older downstream, often poorer, communities.

Lead, mold, and asthma hazards inherent in older housing stock, schools, and public facilities typical of these poorer communities.

Our elected officials must support policies at the local, county, state, and Federal government levels that assure an equitable environmental quality for all residents.  This includes funding to remedy past injustices, whether intentionally by polluters or stemming from unintended consequences of ongoing poor development practices and long-term neglect.

Representing our communities as elected officials and governmental employees is a solemn responsibility and privilege that holds us to a high standard of ethical responsibility. As political leaders in our communities, we all put our reputations on the line in endorsing and campaigning for Democratic candidates. Certainly we have the right and responsibility to demand accountability in the unfortunate situation that a person in a leadership position falls indefensibly short of ethical standards. When an elected official or government official is guilty of significant dereliction of duty, they should be expected to hold themselves accountable. Failing that, we as party leaders have the responsibility to call them out and demand accountability, up to and including public repudiation and demanding resignation and replacement when warranted by bad actions. Too often our party leaders have erroneously conflated this expectation of ethical accountability with undue meddling in elected officials’ affairs, and thus have allowed malfeasance up to and including sexual violence to be excused.

Law enforcement officers in particular wield awesome power over the lives and wellbeing of all citizens and thus are rightly expected to be accountable to the highest ethical standards. At the same time they are solemnly sworn to follow the law and the separation of powers that reserves the power of trial and punishment to the courts and juries of peers. However, throughout our nation's history and continuing to this day, there have been egregious violations of civil rights, too often in the form of brutality and death at the hands of law enforcement. Whether this is due to deliberate violations of the law and/or poor vetting and training of the persons holding these positions, the repercussions for our communities are equally tragic. Most often, it is the most vulnerable among us who are subjected to the most horrific abuse, particularly people of color, the poor, and the mentally ill. Elected officials, law enforcement agencies, and particularly police unions must be held accountable to the highest standards of 21st century best practices and must hold those who fall short responsible, regardless of whether it is politically convenient.

Sadly, Delaware County is a poster child for the damage wrought to public health systems at the hands of unchecked corporations and billionaire investors, who have bought laws that allow and encourage this type of exploitation not seen on this scale in this country since the "robber baron" era of centuries past. Some of the leaders in our community hold responsibility for greed and economic naivete that led, wittingly or unwittingly, to the crisis our communities are in today, affecting our poorest and most vulnerable residents the most. Responsibility must be demanded so that all current and future leaders are held to a higher standard in the best interest of all of us. 

Our elected officials at the Federal and state level must act now to ban the practices that led to the collapse of the Crozer Keystone health system and other hospitals in the region. At the same time we must strengthen our locally operated health systems through strategic government investment and innovative practices, such as a statewide purchasing consortium to reduce operating costs via large bulk orders.

Our region is fortunate to have a robust legacy public transit system within and connecting our urban and suburban communities. Tens of thousands of workers, the economically vulnerable, seniors, and persons with disabilities rely on public transit every day to earn a livelihood, serve our communities, to access healthcare, and for basic quality of life. Our systems are well designed and constructed but they are all aging. Maintaining and upgrading this invaluable infrastructure to 21st Century standards inevitably comes with large capital costs. We must support our Democratic elected officials’ efforts in Harrisburg to create an ongoing adequate source of funding to keep these systems functioning effectively. At the same time we need to reach out to our colleagues from urban, suburban, as well as rural areas across the state to underscore that the economic engines that generate revenue which benefits all Pennsylvanians relies on these public transit systems. We must reach a fair compromise to fund services for residents who rely on public transit in all regions of the state.