Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Breaking ground and making history

Breaking ground and making history

As we took part in the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Swissvale Borough building last week, I thought about the amazing strides we have made as a society in the 118 years since the last borough building was constructed.

When our counterparts from the past stood in front of their new borough building, they lived in a society where women couldn't vote, it was legal to subject black citizens to literacy tests to keep them from voting, people could put restrictive covenants on their deeds to keep Jewish or Black people from buying their houses, pregnant women could be forced to quit their jobs, someone could be convicted of a crime for handing out flyers protesting the draft, and LGBTQ+ people were hidden away out of fear.

Most of the elected officials in attendance at the groundbreaking would have been ineligible to serve their communities in elected office back in 1907. I hope that in 2143, our future counterparts will look back at the amazing positive progress in law, society, and civil rights that they have made in the 118 years since our time and marvel at how far they have come.

I am honored to serve this community I love and to play a part, together with my neighbors and friends, in shaping its history.