Skokie Vision 20
Vision #20: Respect is the least we can expect of others. The entire concept of community is predicated on mutual appreciation for the basic humanity of each of us. Elected officials manifest their respect for their own constituents through their personal behavior and through their political actions.
On a personal level, we expect democratically elected leaders to look us in the eye when we speak, to travel in our mocassins and on our blocks for at least half a minute especially when we are hurting, and to respond to calls for help the first time, not the tenth time.
Politically, respect shows up in social safety nets like accessible health clinics and rent subsidies. Respect is a Village Hall that accommodates limited English speakers, and has weekend and evening hours for those with no other choice. Respect is ensuring that all neighborhoods are equally well-served in, say, street repairs, traffic safety, and policing; appreciating that a well-loved business or coffee shop should be protected and not passed over for a speculative venture; welcoming, rather than putting up road blocks, to group homes for people with disabilities, and a variety of houses of worship. It's double-checking whether a proposed program or development will lead to displacement or harm the environment.
As Trustee, I will continue to do what I have done for decades here in Skokie, and that's to show up for residents who have felt disrespected or unheard. And winning -- because I combine my own expertise in fair housing rights with my ability to organize people into a force to speak for themselves in such a way that the Village Board individually and collectively responds favorably. In that way, the mostly Pakistani Muslim resident cabdrivers in 2007 won a parking compromise; nonprofits providing congregate living for people with disabilities had their right to house people in Skokie affirmed; and landlords didn't have to hand the Skokie police the social security numbers even of infants in their buildings. The victory at the polls for electoral reform referendums by the Skokie Alliance for Electoral Reform, which I helped to organize and chaired, was really, at bottom, about mutual respect.
Respect from an elected official to me will always be exemplified by then Skokie Trustee Randy Roberts back in 2017. I had gone the extra mile with the late Vivian Harris, a Black senior homeowner whose racially-motivated harassment by white neighbors was not taken seriously by police even though everyone else on her block rallied around her and her husband. I reached out to Trustee Roberts who gathered the police chief, Assistant Village Manager, and police social worker at Village Hall, where I joined Vivian along with Vivian’s granddaughter and good friend.
After listening attentively to all of Vivian’s concerns, Trustee Roberts looked directly at Vivian and said simply, “Mrs. Harris, I hear you.” They apologized for what she went through. Vivian no longer felt powerless in her own community. She called me the following day and said last night, she could finally sleep. This is how we feel when we are respected by our Trustees.