By Brian Gilliland, Associate Editor

(Jan. 11, 2018) Without being aware of the events of the final Berlin council meeting of 2017, where a video set to promote the town’s downtown area was criticized for a lack of racial diversity, it’s difficult to contextualize the first meeting of 2018.

Without mentioning the video specifically, Mayor Gee Williams, Councilman Dean Burrell and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People member Ivory Smith engaged in an amicable debate about what Berlin is, where it had come from and what it should be.

On Dec. 11, the council reviewed the video, which had been viewed more than 25,000 times and shared 435 times on social media. However, Burrell, based on a citizen complaint, brought it to the council’s attention something was missing — only one African-American person was featured in the video.

“When there are two African-American councilmen [including Burrell] and a chief of police who are not truly represented, that tells a tale of an ugly undercurrent in beautiful Berlin,” Greg Purnell, Berlin resident, said at the time.

Williams delivered lengthy remarks on his perception of Berlin and how the community can best work together.

“Recently, here in Berlin, there has been some observations that the way we present ourselves as a town may influence or negatively impact self-esteem among some of our fellow citizens. This is understandable, as life so often reminds us, that perception all too often becomes its own reality,” he said. “Personally, I strongly believe there has not been, or will be in the future, any intent by the Town of Berlin to ignore or recognize any of our citizens — regardless of the diversity that we not only encourage — but for most Berliners today, we celebrate.”

Burrell said the mayor’s sentiments were well put and appreciated.

“What makes us great is diversity and our ability to work together,” he said.

Williams observed that 2018 marks Berlin’s 150th year as a Maryland municipality.

Burrell said the town was starting a new 150 years and the previous 150 were good, overall, and “showed us some things.” He said he was looking forward to what the future would teach him and the residents of the town, moving forward.

Smith said he wanted the town to start showcasing its diversity sooner rather than later, and to more visibly provide support for certain sections of town.

“On the one side it’s all beautiful with lights, and the other is all doom and gloom,” he said.

Burrell took exception to that observation.

“Gee also talked about perspectives. Our perspectives are individual,” he said. “You talked about doom and gloom — I don’t see that in my community, my neighborhood. I see pride in property, pride in the neighborhood and pride in where we exist.”

Burrell said he would be annoyed by the presence of downtown’s lights in his neighborhood, as an example.

It was all a matter of perspective, he said.

“Our origins as a community are not what we would have wished, but our flawed beginnings did not limit the desire and determination of the generations who preceded us for our Berlin to become a better place,” Williams said. “I do not apologize for where we’ve come from, but I recognize we still have a ways to go.”

Seemingly coming to an understanding, if not an outright agreement on the issues, the parties let the issue rest.

“It is a wonderful thing to have these discussions on these topics in public,” Burrell said.