GREENFIELD — The town’s Human Rights Commission has elected a new chairman, who says his main goal is to promote tolerance in Greenfield by encouraging dialogue among neighbors.
Philippe Simon, who has sat on the commission since April, replaced Lewis Metaxas as chairman this week after his term expired. Gregory Corcoran was elected vice chairman.
Although he’s a relative newcomer to the commission, Simon said he sees that as a benefit. He said his greatest wish is to use the commission to foster new ideas and new methods of addressing issues of social and economic justice.
“I felt a little bit of reluctance because of my lack of experience serving on a commission like this, but when I think about the years and years I’ve spent doing political work, activist work and TV work here, it started to make a lot more sense,” he said. “I think sometimes the best leadership is reluctant leadership because I’m not a person that wants to gather power, I want to help the process of facilitating social justice in Greenfield.”
Simon is also taking the reins in the midst of a town-wide discussion about racism and discrimination. Recently, racist, digitally altered photos of a town councilor were emailed anonymously to Greenfield department heads and businesses, and the owners of a local business came forward to say their employees have been the target of frequent harassment by a neighbor, including an anti-Semitic remark.
“I want to tackle this problem from the bottom, up — not from the top, down,” Simon said. “I would like to do what I can to encourage the mobilization of community members in their own neighborhoods, to do things to promote tolerance and to get to know the situation within each neighborhood.”
Simon believes fear comes from lack of knowledge, and said although there are some people that harbor hatred, for the most part there’s just a level of unfamiliarity. He said one way of combating that would be to create neighborhood committees, with families going from door to door getting to know each other — especially when someone new moves in.
“My style of living here — I’m usually out and about, a lot of people know who I am,” Simon said. “I’m just going to be a really visible element in the community.”