Black Lives Matter Mural is being Repainted as Part of OneMamaroneck’s Juneteenth Celebration, Saturday, June 18.

We thank Trustees Dan Natchez, Nora Lucas and Victor Tafur for protecting the Village and voting against a hasty proposal that would have opened the door to all kinds of hate speech on Village property.  They insisted that the Board of Trustees take an extra two weeks to develop and adopt a policy to ensure that the mural was government speech and not private speech.  Now Mamaroneck is protected from any demands of the Nazi Party, KKK, and other vile hate groups* since government speech can be regulated (by policy) but private speech cannot.

Thoughtful policy making is what this Village needs.

For more information about how you can participate in tomorrow’s Juneteenth Celebration and support REALM (Recognizing Enslaved Africans of Larchmont and Mamaroneck), go to:  https://onemamaroneck.org/events

Richard Litman, Andrew Spatz and Trustee Dan Natchez hope to see you there!

*The delay in approving the Black Lives Matter mural was to ensure that it was government speech and not private speech.  See https://www.npr.org/2022/05/02/1095943871/supreme-court-says-boston-unconstitutionally-barred-christian-flag-from-city-hal for more information.  In the recent Supreme Court decision Justice Breyer wrote: “The key was to what extent Boston actually controlled the messages on the flags. And the answer, he said, was not at all. The city's lack of meaningful involvement, he said, led the court to conclude that these flag raisings were not government speech—where the government can control its message—but private speech, in fact religious speech, that cannot be regulated by the government.”