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<\/a>California Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber was the first speaker to share her story. Weber is the daughter of sharecroppers from Hope, Arkansas who left the town under threat of lynching for \u201cfighting for what was right and just.\u201d She said her family found hope in California because \u201cthere was no hope for African Americans in Hope in 1951.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I stand here as a daughter of a sharecropper who understood what the impact of racism, the lack of opportunity, the inability to vote all meant in a person\u2019s life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Weber credited her father for understanding that California offered better opportunities for her and her siblings before briefly listing some of her accomplishments those opportunities granted her, including the multiple degrees from the University of California she earned that helped springboard her into a successful career as a public servant in the Assembly and now as California\u2019s Secretary of State, adding that she now feels \u201cindebted to California to restore the greatness back to all Californians in terms of their vision and dream for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n Weber cited that sense of indebtedness as a reason for her relentless combating of racism throughout her career.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things one of my students asked me some years ago at San Diego State, \u2018Don\u2019t you ever get tired of fighting?\u2019 And I said, \u2018The alternative to not doing anything, that is much too great and we have to be vigilant in what we do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I have said in the Assembly year after year is that love and inclusion and peace and justice and freedom is a rare flower that demands from us constant attention,\u201d she said. \u201cBut hatred, discrimination, exclusion is a weed and it grows best in neglect.\u201d<\/p>\n Weber\u2019s daughter, Assembly member and former La Mesa City Council member Dr. Akilah Weber, followed and shared her thoughts on the day that roiled the city.<\/p>\n \u201cIt started off a very promising day because we had a protest that was actually very peaceful that came so people could make sure their voices were heard and unfortunately later on that evening that very promising peaceful protest turned into a lot of pain when we saw our city being destroyed, our businesses vandalized by people who came in with a very different purpose,\u201d she said. \u201cBut because of who we are as La Mesans, we turned pain into a new purpose and by the next day we were up helping each other and making sure we told our story of who La Mesa is and who the residents are.\u201d<\/p>\n Akilah Weber said the city has done much in the past year to address why the protesters came to La Mesa and that the city will strive to do even more and become \u201can example of how people can work, play and live together in a diverse community and that everyone\u2019s voice is heard and that everyone feels comfortable telling their story.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI look forward to making sure people know the real La Mesa that we will not be defined by one incident but that we will define who we are and who are city is for ourselves,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Mayor Mark Arapostathis spoke next and shared how his single mother raised him to \u201cbe accepting of everyone and not to judge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s how she ran her classrooms and as I became a teacher and \u2026 helped start La Mesa Arts Academy \u2026 it was with the intent that using the arts to teach these lessons because we tell our students, \u2018Everyone is vulnerable. We are all vulnerable for different reasons and so we need to treat everyone with respect with inclusion and we need to reach unity,\u201d he said, adding that students at the school grasp the concept and often share their bewilderment at cruelty in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cA 9-year-old fourth grader will say, \u2018Why doesn\u2019t everyone just be kind?,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd as an adult I don\u2019t have a reason for that. I don\u2019t know how to answer that question except to say, \u2018You\u2019re absolutely right. Start growing up and figure this out so you can save the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Arapostathis said the riot is something the city will never forget.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to be the seminal point in La Mesa\u2019s history and the line is going to be drawn from there \u2014 how we react to this, not how we react the next day, the next month, the next year, but how the history of this city unfolds as we move forward,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that event should be used as a roadmap on how this can happen when feel disillusioned, when there is no unity and everyone is not included.\u201d<\/p>\n Janet Castellanos read a statement from artist Lauren Miller who helped organize the effort to paint the plywood boards that covered broken windows of businesses following the riots.<\/p>\n \u201cWe worked as a team to make beauty where there was destruction,\u201d Miller wrote. \u201cWe came out stronger, more resilient and added just a little more beauty to the world, so let\u2019s continue. What are your gifts and how can you make La Mesa better?\u201d<\/p>\n Helix graduate and current Howard University student Asia Duncan contributed a video spoken word poem \u201cI\u2019m Ready For My Independence Day.\u201d While at Helix, Duncan was a part of Movement Be, a program that encourages youth to tell their story to challenge the status quo that was founded by the day\u2019s keynote speaker, Nate Howard, when he was a student there.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>