Had it not been for 500 EHS students who protested against racism in front of city hall three weeks ago, Anthony DiPierro might not have resigned.
The disgraced former councilor refused to resign for two months, and the mayor backed DiPierro, which tells a sorry tale about the mayor finding it more important to support his racist cousin than to force him to resign to bring back an ounce of integrity to the city government.
Leaving their classes at EHS, walking out, and forming a long line three and four deep, they marched from the high school, up Broad- way, down to the city hall, where they regrouped chanting “the mayor has to resign.”
What the city council and the school committee failed to do, the EHS students rejected as the way government here should go.
Their march to city hall and their organized protest in front of city hall was an event that had never before happened in the city of Everett.
That most of the kids – at least 80% were people of color and ethnicity – added a special essence to this seminal moment in the city’s history.
If the mayor is forced to step down or he decides to leave, let it be forever know, that battle for change began with these EHS students protesting in front of city hall and shouting out for their empowerment to a government that had nothing to say about the racism that caused them to march.
That protest was a big moment – a major moment – a moment for the ages in an old city that is changing rapidly, where the earth seems to be moving under our feet as this editorial is written.
The kids who protested chose to empower themselves politically at the risk of being excoriated by a mayor who pays lip service to them, to where they came from, and to where they are heading.
Never again, the kids might well say to the silent city council. Never again.
Racism will not be tolerated here.