Browsing: Editorials

       The Book of Esther tells the story of a young woman placed in position “for such a time as this.” It was not comfort that called Esther. It was crisis. It was not convenience that summoned her. It was conscience. She understood that silence in dangerous times could become betrayal to her people.

    What should have been a professional evaluation became, in the eyes of many who sat in that chamber, something far more troubling, a public spectacle of humiliation. The public rebuke and relentless interrogation of Fort Lauderdale’s first Black female city manager, Rickelle Williams, struck a nerve deep within the spirit of this community.

       It does not announce itself gently. It arrives in silence, – heavy, unfamiliar, and absolute. One moment, life feels anchored in presence, in voice, in laughter, in the small, ordinary exchanges that we mistake for permanence. And then, in a single breath, we are ushered into a new existence defined not by what is but by what is no longer there.

       More than fifty years ago, The Temptations gave us a warning wrapped in rhythm with Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today). It was a song about chaos, contradiction, and a world that felt like it was spinning out of control. 

       There is a question that must be asked plainly, boldly, and without apology: When Broward closes schools and opens the door to “affordable housing,” who exactly is it affordable for?