How well is Alpena County progressing, when an elected School Board member logs onto a Facebook page promoting the betterment of Alpena, and references the Vice President of the United States by saying, “You don’t know who or what has been inside her?” Vice President Harris, is an accomplished woman of color. According to 2019 Alpena County statistics, there are approximately 900 people of color living within our county. Such vulgar, juvenile and impulsive statements by an elected leader can be demoralizing to our friends and neighbors of color and a squash to little girls and boys, who want to emulate such leaders. Statements like that of this School Board member set our county back 50 years to the days of gingham dresses and ruffled bottoms. His behavior is an unnecessarily poor reflection on the Board as a whole, not to mention a poor overall image of our entire public school system. Our community needs change-makers. It’s one thing to use constructive methods to propagate change, and another to disparage and push down minorities in the pursuit of one’s own personal ideology. We bog down entire systems of governance, when we elect people who engage in self-serving methods. When we wonder why Alpena isn’t progressing like other communities, we can look no further than our own leaders. We must ask ourselves if this person is who we want setting community standards and policy? Is this person a role model for area youth regardless of position? Or perhaps we should ask ourselves if this person is more of a problem than a problem-solver. Even online words matter. There’s an old adage that goes something like this – “You are who you hang with.” Dear Alpena County. We are who we elect! Vote wisely.

Marie Fielder,

Alpena