Brevard County, FL, Commission Meeting
8 July 2025
Keith Becher (302 words)

Good evening, commissioners, staff, and neighbors.

Before this meeting gets underway, I politely ask that we pause—not to dismiss the gravity of the various situations and events that surround us, but to reflect on them with the utmost prudence and conscientiousness.

We are a community made stronger by our differences and the resolve of the people. I make a plea to all of you this evening that you commit yourselves to representing all your constituents.  That all of us respect the growing diversity of this county. For, diversity is not something we have to endure, but something we should protect.  It is the scaffolding that strengthens and supports our communities.

May we resist the urge to sow division and stoke fear.  Threating to kill unarmed citizens, assaulting officers with a flagpole, or cheering on the suffering of others does nothing for our communities. Nor does exalting those who chose to ignore our shared humanity, while giving others a license to dehumanize their neighbors.

What are the shared values we can coalesce around as a community? What values will make room for all of us? Do our neighbors not deserve the right to fairness, dignity and  inclusion?  We The People, this is a phrase we have heard and hear so often. Yet we have continually failed to make these words a reality as our country’s history progresses ever forward in time.  So the question is, If not now when?

Let us remember we don’t all need to think alike, worship the same, look alike or love the same to have a community that everyone can call home. May we humble ourselves, speak with honesty, listen intently, and hold a shared belief that the law, the county of Brevard and the space we make in it, belongs to all of us.

Thank you.