01/04/2026
Happy New Year, 2026.
Folks have asked me to share my 20 years of Carrboro Town Council closing remarks from the December 2, 2025 Town Council meeting.
Here is the text of my closing Council Membership remarks:
Closing Council Membership Remarks:
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December 2, 2025
With gratitude to the 7 women who run with wolves who recruited me:
Ellie Kinnaird, Shirley Marshall, Melva Okun, Diana McDuffee, Mary Wakefield, Frances Shetley, and Marti Mandell.
Carrboro Freight Train: The Little Engine that Could
As every Carrborrean knows, Elizabeth Cotten wrote “Freight Train” as a teenager in Carrboro over one hundred years ago, inspired by the sound of the trains passing by her home. Now, a century later, Carrboro is that freight train, raw with energy and carrying a heart full of goodness to deliver. And like the “The Little Engine that Could,” Carrboro is the “local” motivation, the beacon ignited and emboldened by Carrborreans, fueled by people-focused deeds and mighty voices.
Back in the day, in New York, two beacons awakened me with their light and vision: Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug. They inspired and shaped my expectations of women, work and social activism. Chisholm and Abzug, bold, thought-leading women resonated deeply with me. I have never forgotten the lessons of their leadership. Bella Abzug, “Battling Bella,” who aptly stated “A woman’s place in the House, the House of Representatives”; and Shirley Chisholm, “unbossed and unbought,” who said, “If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
Yes, and I say, set a new table.
Hence, it’s not what’s next, it’s what’s now: Table Talks, neighborly, neighborhood and community driven kitchen table conversations. Table Talks are a place to talk about our community. And yes, thank you, Frances Shetley, who inspired kitchen table talks 38 years ago.
I’ve been in the room and at the table to help guide our “little engine that could” hometown through expansion of her municipal boundary and the densification of her population. In my capacity as an elected Town official, I have engaged as a community organizer to build and fortify the community as we became the progressive stronghold we are today.
I am passionate about Carrboro and my Council work and remain dedicated to our collective effort to continuously build and strengthen community. I am humbled by the gift of having served with my community folks and treasure all of our work together for our beloved hometown.
As the torch is passed this evening, I welcome and offer the very best wishes for the new Council as representatives and to all the community voices eager to engage, collaborate and represent Carrboro through its governance.
We are living in an unprecedented and urgent moment in American and human history. Our democracy and the rule of law we have relied on and taken for granted is being dismantled from within the walls of all three branches of our federal government.
Town government is not designed for nor is it equipped to respond to the dismantling of the federal government and reshaping it into an imperial presidency. How and whether democracy prevails depends on we, the people.
This is the time to invest more deeply in community awareness, action and advocacy. In November 2024, I felt called to act in a different capacity, one that furthers education, seeks to motivate and mobilize our citizenry to be resilient and face the challenges ahead together.
So what’s next? Three areas I will continue to work on:
Human Rights, Women’s Reproductive Rights, Tenants’ Rights
Climate resiliency and environmental sustainability, preservation, protection, green living and infrastructure
Water quality, access, quantity and PFAS pollution
The personal is political. I am proud to be a Boomer, coming of age in the Woodstock Nation. Proud to have marched with Coretta Scott King to continue the good work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights and voting rights. I marched and advocated for LGBTQ+ and human rights and women’s reproductive rights and was present during anti-war and Stonewall protests.
In British Columbia, I was a farm worker, mentored by Manitoban Native North Americans, where I learned how to advocate for day laborers and organize a strike for higher wages. From that experience, decades later I visioned the El Centro Center for Employment and Leadership in Carrboro.
These experiences prepared me for the work I have undertaken here in Carrboro and across North Carolina. I have always addressed contemporary issues of my time and sought to engage all voices.
Thank you, Carrboro for entrusting me with the responsibility to make decisions with and for you as a five term, 20 year elected community representative of our town.
Thank you for teaching me how to be responsive to diverse needs and perspectives reflected throughout our community.
Thank you for the opportunity to learn the principles and apply the tools of participatory governance, what it is, looks and feels like and how it can express itself and build trust when practiced.
In the words of Carl Sagan, “We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.”
And so y’all work hard, work deep, keep chugging along like a Freight Train.
Carrboro is our home and worth it.
