A MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER
By Bobby R. Henry, Sr., Publisher
There comes a moment when silence becomes betrayal. There comes a point when watching dignity stripped away in public becomes too heavy for the soul to carry quietly. Tuesday night (May 4, 2020) at the Fort Lauderdale City Commission meeting was one of those moments.
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.
Now let me be clear -leadership should always be evaluated. Accountability comes with public office. Tough questions are part of governance. But there is a difference between accountability and humiliation. There is a difference between disagreement and disrespect.
And when that line was crossed… I could no longer remain silent.
As I sat there listening to the mayor, Dean Trantalis and Commissioner John Herbst, who was fired from his position as the City auditor and who is now stepping down from his commission seat, continue pressing, admonishing, and publicly dressing down this woman before citizens, cameras, and commissioners, something rose up inside of me. Not simply anger, righteous indignation.
Because many of us have seen this before.
We have seen Black leadership held to a different standard.
We have seen competence questioned differently.
We have seen strength labeled as attitude.
We have seen composure mistaken for defiance.
And we have watched public pressure become public punishment. By me standing and shouting, “Wait just a damn minute, you’re not going to destroy and disrespect her like this,”! I was questioning their motives, intentions, and the way it was being done, it did not come from politics. It came from principle.
“Cry loud, spare not.”
Those words are not merely scripture. They are a mandate to confront injustice openly and honestly. They remind us that there are moments when diplomacy alone cannot carry the weight of truth.
This was not about protecting one person from criticism. This was about protecting the dignity of public service itself. And perhaps what disturbed many people most was not simply the criticism but the spirit in which it was delivered and what was being shown by those who were supposed to be the leaders of a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming administration.
Fort Lauderdale is changing. The city is wrestling with growth, development, power, race, economics, and identity all at the same time. Tensions are high over the future of City Hall, over leadership, over priorities, and over who truly has a voice in shaping the city’s future.
But if we cannot disagree without demeaning… If we cannot question without belittling…
If we cannot lead without humiliating…Then we are losing more than political battles. We are losing our humanity. History will judge not only the decisions made in that chamber, but the way people were treated while making them.
And on this night, many walked away asking themselves: Was this leadership? Or was this something else entirely?
Cry loud.
Spare not.
Because sometimes the conscience of a community demands that somebody speak.