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Town of Lexington Human Rights Committee <br />Meeting Minutes for Friday,July 07,2023 <br />Conducted in hybrid:Community center and Zoom <br />LHRC MEMBERS PRESENT <br />Christina Lin,Chair (CL);Stephanie Hsu,Vice-Chair (SH);Salvador Jaramillo (SJ);Mona D.Roy <br />(MDR);Amber Iqbal (AI);Larry Freeman -Lexington Public School District (LF);Melissa Interess - <br />Town of Lexington,Human Services (MI) <br />The minutes recorded by Christina Lin,LHRC Chair <br />1.Call to order at 2:30PM on July 07,2023 with a quorum present. <br />2.Input for the Letter to the LexObserver Editor:In response to the <br />Lexington Observer article on affirmative action on May 19,2023 <br />(https://lexobserver.org/2023/05/19/families-in-lexington-known-for-its-top-notch-sc <br />hools-and-ethnic-diversity-await-the-supreme-courts-decision-on-affirmative-action/), <br />the LHRC had voted to draft a letter to the editor.This meeting was scheduled to take <br />input from all attending committee members for thoughts and ideas to be considered for <br />the letter. <br />Topics,ideas and thoughts for Letter to the Editor <br />1.One possible topic is addressing public discourse regarding the comments section (not the article). <br />a.Promote discourse and facilitation of discourse that unites/brings greater understanding <br />across differences.Address comments/statements that create division. <br />b.Can possibly use this as an opportunity to share relevant work that LHRC has done to <br />promote healthy public discourse.(refer to MLK 2023 discussion) <br />2.What is the level of responsibility of news organizations to the consequences of articles and <br />subsequent comments?-Divisive comments are posted on all social media platforms/public <br />platforms,not just LexObserver. <br />a.Are owners of online platforms responsible for monitoring public responses and to maintain <br />a level civil discourse? <br />b.In addition to profane language,toxic comments that are bigoted or disparage group <br />identities should not be left unaddressed. <br />c.Should those toxic comments be taken off? <br />3.The supreme court decision has come out.Do we need to address this? <br />4.Avoid commenting on affirmative action and the article itself.The topic is too nuanced and needs <br />an expert/authority voice.We can state that we are not going to address affirmative action as it is <br />1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE •LEXINGTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02420