Elimination of county Human Rights Commission deserves serious consideration
Lancaster has come a long way in the since the Watchdog built the Manor House Apartments in Lancaster Township and the first African American couple moved in. As someone who hadn’t even yet moved to Lancaster, he had no knowledge of or interest in the implicit local understanding among government and those in real estate that Blacks were to be contained in the Seventh Ward.
Times have changed radically, witness the election of President Barrack Obama , same sex marriages, and regulations and modifications on behalf of the physically challenged. Allowing human rights to be handled by State Human Rights Commission (for which we in part pay as taxpayers) may free up almost a half a million dollar of scarce resources to be used to remedy today’s more pressing matters, including more adequate funding of the library system.
Whatever the County Commissioners decide, let us praise them for having the courage to stir up a hornet’s nest in order to better serve county residents.
Two Lancaster County Commissioners, Scott Martin and Dennis Stuckey, are recommending the elimination of the Lancaster County Human Relations Commission, the body responsible for enforcing civil rights in Lancaster County since 1964, protecting the rights of individuals in areas such as housing, employment, and education whose rights may be denied based on religion, race, sex, ethnicity, or disability.
If they succeed, they will eliminate the ability of the county to enforce civil rights protections. This will be devastating to people who are victims of discrimination in Lancaster County. It will also send a message that discrimination is once again acceptable in the county. This will have a chilling affect on tourism and new business development in the region.
The vote to eliminate the Human Relations Commission will take place this Thursday night, July 29.
The above response to the Editor’s article about the possible elimination of the Lancaster County HRC is absolutely false. There are now MULTIPLE layers of services afforded to those who think they have been discriminated against. The city (given the dire financial situation they are in, they should follow the lead of the county and terminate their commission too), the county and the state have such agencies.
Many counties within the state did not jump on this bandwagon and preferred to let the state agency do its job. The state agency is responsive and effective. Additionally, there are numerous other special interest agencies that work to protect their respective constituencies.
Thank goodness we have two commissioners are who are not interested in continuing to waste our precious tax dollars on duplicated services. I look forward to waking up tomorrow and reading that commissioners Martin and Stuckey terminated this waste of space agency.