Good evening, my name is Rachel Day, I am a borough resident in the

First Ward and own and operate 2 businesses located in the First and
Fourth Wards, with a 3rd business to open in the borough this fall.

Most recently you may recognize my name from an email I sent in

support of forming an exploratory committee to assess the need for an
inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance for our LGBTQ+ community
members. I want to thank Mike Herbert, Sharon Bigler and Alice Elia
for their thoughtful responses, and I look forward to hearing discussion
on the issue from other committee members this evening.

But that is not why I stand before you tonight.

Tonight, I am here to ask all council members if the unprovoked

response I received from council member Allen Coffman reflects your
values and those of our municipality.

If so, I am deeply concerned.

Intrusive and undermining, Mr. Coffman questioned why I moved to

such a conservative area like Chambersburg?

I moved here to be in service of others, as you have been elected to be.

I am a doctor, a dermatologist to be specific, and the only dermatologist

in this county. Before 2017 we hadn’t had a dermatologist in town since
2011. With my credentials, I could have practiced anywhere. I saw a
critical need in a community where I have family. I chose to practice in
Chambersburg to meet that critical need and be in service close to
family.

I could have lived anywhere, but I chose to live and to raise my three
children here in the borough.
I could have opened my non-medical businesses anywhere, but I chose
to put them here in downtown Chambersburg and support local
economic development.

I am as much a part of this Chambersburg community fabric as my

residential and business neighbors who preceded me. To proclaim that I
don’t know the community where I live, work, and provide employment
is indelibly offensive.

By any measure, Mr. Coffman’s response to my letter was

unprofessional. But it wasn’t just unprofessional, its content expressed
bigotry and was racially biased.

This is what frightens me to the point of standing here before you to read
this statement.

Mr. Coffman’s unjustifiable response reflects a dangerous pattern of

thought that must be acknowledged by the council and put under the lens
of scrutiny.

Nauseous is how I felt, reading the censure letter of Mr. Fogel he penned
last august. Please re-read it, then read his response to me. Offended by
my accusations of marginalization, but with every key stroke oppressing
my truth.

Council members are you comfortable with Mr. Coffman speaking for
you? Sitting beside you? Representing our municipality? I am not. I am
deeply concerned.

Council members, you are here in service of your community as am I.

You cannot choose apathy on this important matter. Silence from the
council about my treatment as a borough resident, community member,
business owner and black woman will speak volumes. Silence from the
borough council will be acquiescence to the blatant racial
microaggression present in Mr. Coffman’s response.
In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends.”

Council members, you cannot afford the cost of silence in this matter.

In response to me publicly sharing his email, Mr. Coffman has

mobilized his nativist base. I have already been questioned about being
socialist or a communist through my business website. The man
identified himself as a BOC native (borough of Chambersburg native),
first ward. This audacious threat is thinly veiled.

At the risk of economic consequence at best, and concern for my safety

at worst, I stand before you this evening, because I will not be silenced. I
am deeply concerned.

Council members, it is not 1950, it is 2021 and we should all strive to be

citizens of the world as we are more alike than we are different. I am
mission driven to be part of the necessary change we need in our
community to bring true equity and inclusion to all citizens in
Chambersburg.

Silence from the borough council will sanctify each of your roles in
making it permissible for a fellow elected official to support nativism,
wield racial microaggression and invoke harassment against those that
speak up without reproach.

I alongside our community stakeholders await your response.