‘FAR STRONGER THAN HATE’
At rally for unity, Keaton, Hanks, Harris and others mourn with Pittsburghers, celebrate city
A two-time Oscar-winner lauded Pittsburgh from a Point State Park stage, saying the city has set an example to the world of how good can come of hate.
A Super Bowl MVP urged Western Pennsylvanians to build upon the momentum of togetherness in the wake of the Oct. 27 Tree of Life mass murders to become still stronger and more united.
And quietly under an umbrella a few hundred feet away from Tom Hanks and Franco Harris, a retiree with no special claim to fame spoke of how horrific acts have been all too common throughout her life, but you can’t let them take control of your thoughts and actions.
“I keep feeling that we’re going around the same loop over and over together,” said Margaret Noether Stevens, a 73-year-old Downtown resident. “But you just can’t stop — you have to keep fighting.”
Fighting together for love and unity to conquer anti-Semitism and other hate-filled violence was the dominant theme of a rainsoaked rally sponsored by the city Friday afternoon at the Pittsburgh rivers’ confluence. The stage was filled at various times with film stars, sports heroes, rabbis, ministers, Muslims, politicians, wounded police officers, relatives of victims, singers and others.
Other vigils have been held since the shooting of worshippers in the Squirrel Hill synagogue 13 days earlier, but Pittsburgh officials wanted to have one broad public event that anyone could attend, timed after the end of traditional Jewish period of mourning.
It rained nonstop for the 73 minutes of the peace rally, which undoubtedly diminished attendance, but the 400 or more slogging across the sloppy Point State Park turf heard bright words that celebrated their city while calling out haters. Those came after a moment of silence, during which only rumbling trains across the Monongahela River were heard, followed by the reading of the names of the 11 congregants killed.
“If you want to see a city that’s far, far stronger than hate, you should go to Pittsburgh,” is what actor Michael Keaton, who grew up in Robinson and once lived in Squirrel Hill, said he tells people he meets on movie sets around the world.
“If you want to see a city that’s tolerant, accepting, inclusive and compassionate, you should go to Pittsburgh,” he continued. “If you
want to bring hate, racism, prejudice and division, you should go to hell.”
Mr. Keaton was the dominant presence at the microphone, introducing others and speaking unscripted about his pride in the region and the home in which he grew up, in which his mother outlawed use of the word “hate.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life, a witness to the shootings and publicly thankful to the police officers who helped rescue him, pleaded for the crowd never to use the word “hate” again, as he won’t, either.
“It’s an obscenity, just like the other four-letter obscenities that we don’t say in public,” he said. “So if you’re a Pittsburgh Steeler fan, don’t tell me you hate a certain team from the northeast United States — just don’t like them.”
Mr. Harris and former Steelers lineman Brett Keisel were among those invited onstage, where huge “Stronger Than Hate” banners carried the new version of the Steelers helmet logo that includes a gold Star of David. And following the soft-spoken Mr. Harris, it was Mr. Keisel who was more emotional than any of the many speakers.
Noting the local “City of Champions” nickname and pride, he said — and shouted: “We must become champions of change. … Our diversity is our strength. Spread love. Be kind. Say ‘I love you.’ Say ‘I’m sorry.’ We can do this, Pittsburgh. We must do this, Pittsburgh! Let the city of champions become the city of change!”
Mr. Hanks spent recent months in Pittsburgh making a film in which he stars as Fred Rogers, an oftencited symbol in recent weeks of the city’s humanity. Mr. Hanks was joined onstage by Mr. Rogers’ widow, Joanne, as he described the strong impression the region had made upon him, an outsider.
“A visitor will know that Pittsburgh is a great city because Pittsburgh has been greatly tested, and in those trials and in your day of struggle, Pittsburgh has set an example of what can come next, and that what can come next can be good,” Mr. Hanks said. “Thank you, Pittsburgh, for your example, for your inspiration, for your love of each other.”
Ms. Rogers followed him by briefly, simply uttering: “I just want to say, let us replace guns with hugs.”
Most of the remarks were nonpolitical, including those from Gov. Tom Wolf, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Mayor Bill Peduto, but Mr. Peduto alluded to his hope in altering state and federal gun laws that he believes make such mass killings easier.
“Strength is not about how many guns you have, strength is the size of compassion of your heart,” the mayor said. “Let us gather today to make sure we move forward as one America working on common-sense reform that will end this type of violence.”
Mr. Peduto made reference, as did some others, to the latest shooting spree that took the lives of 12 individuals this week in a Thousand Oaks, Calif., club. He and others also noted the rally was being held on the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” during which the Nazi regime in Germany unleashed terror against the Jewish population, foreshadowing the coming Holocaust.
Janet Rosenzweig of Danville, Montour County, made the nearly four-hour drive from central Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh with her husband for the ceremony. She is Jewish and she said she felt the “shock” of Oct. 27 and wanted to show support to the local community, though she hadn’t previously been to Pittsburgh and has no connections here.
One lesson from Oct. 27, she said, is, “You just live each day as best you can, and don’t regret something you wished you had done.”
Despite the earlier well-attended vigils in Squirrel Hill, Oakland and elsewhere, Mr. Peduto said in an interview that it was important to have a public event with room for the entire community interested in taking part, and the Point was the perfect location as “sacred ground” for the city and region. Preparations were made for a crowd of thousands that would fill the Point, but he said the weather interfered with that.
He said many individuals and organizations contributed time and equipment, most notably actor/producer Patrick Jordan and his barebones productions inc. for all of the staging involved. The mayor credited ex-Pittsburgher Jimmy Miller — who works in the film industry and is the brother of comedian Dennis Miller — with helping coordinate the participation of Mr. Hanks and Mr. Keaton, who both flew in from out of town.
“It shows that we’re all Pittsburghers, no matter where our families came from or how we pray,” Mr. Peduto said of the event. “It reminds us that we are all one. … It is an important part of mourning to be able to be together.”