Items

• 
  2020-12-06

  Indoor Dining at Loretta

  This is what it looks like for indoor dining at the restaurant Loretta in Newburyport, MA. There are less tables in the dining room and they are all spaced out at least 6 feet with tablecloths on them. Indoor dining has been a controversial activity during the pandemic, with people going out but experts warning against it. Loretta has made sure to keep safe distances with the tables and guests are also required to wear facemasks if they stand up. In the future, historians can look back and see how we maintained a safe dining experience throughout this pandemic.
• 
  2020-06-02

  Wethersfieldblm instagram page

  This item was important because this instagram was used to organize the Black Lives Matter march that took place on June 5th in Wethersfield. The account also created the “Grievances From the Members of Our Community” list. I think this item is important because this entire instagram, these documents, and most importantly, the protest/march were created by people I used to know back in high school and even before then. This shows that our/my generation is far more involved in activism than most other generations have, as you see and hear a lot more younger people have been taking part in these protests, and being more vocal on social media. This instagram is also a good public digital history project as it allowed members of the community to share their own stories and experiences.
• 
  2020-12-02

  “Back the Blue” sign

  I decided to include this into the collection because I believe that it would be unethical to exclude the “opposing side”. The “Back the Blue” movement is a sort of counter-movement created against the calls to “defund the police”. ‘Back the Blue’ is also often referred to as ‘Blue Lives Matter’ or ‘Thin Blue Line’. I felt that this was necessary to include opposing viewpoints, as not to completely dismiss them from existing, which would be unethical, and future historians who look back onto 2020 will also find out about this counter movement and the reason why it was formed, which allows them to fully grasp the environment of our times.