To Our Community:

On behalf of the Village Board of Trustees, I wish to express our profound shock, anger and dismay over the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Like many of you, we are trying to find ways to collectively show our sympathies to the family of Mr. Floyd, while not exposing any of our families and friends to the COVID-19 virus.

We are painfully aware that the community that feels assaulted by a litany of killings, including Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and Breonna Taylor in Kentuck is also experiencing a higher fatality rate from COVID-19 virus. Now, the same vigorous and universal effort to find a cure for a pandemic that has been with us for four months, must be applied to end the racism that has plagued our country for over four hundred years.

We have learned from this pandemic that in times of emergency, the only support that we can truly rely on is each other. We have made masks for each other, provided food for families and health care workers, and sought to help our small businesses. Now we must demonstrate that same neighbor-to-neighbor response to challenge racism in our communities.

And for those that may feel that we do not have the wherewithal to address this challenge on top of the dual public health and economic crisis that we face; I would argue that if we do not address the racial disparities in our society, we will never truly restore our health or our economy.

Please be well and be kind to each other.

Sincerely,

Don Hammond

You can contact us at (845) 358-0548, or visit www.Nyack-NY.gov.