The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Mayor calls Trump ‘white supremacist’
MIDDLETOWN » Mayor Dan Drew at a rally this week sharply condemned President Donald Trump’s refusal to call out neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the wake of the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left three people dead.
Trump initially refused to condemn white nationalists “because he is a white supremacist,” Drew said.
Trump initially condemned “bigotry and violence on many sides.” However, early Monday afternoon, following a meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Trump made a more forceful statement
condemning “in the strongest terms” racial hatred and violence.
“Racism is evil,” Trump said. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”
Drew was one of a number of speakers at a rally on the South Green Sunday evening who addressed the crowd gathered in a gesture of solidarity with groups protesting the white-power rally in Virginia.
A three-term incumbent, Drew announced last month he is running for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2018.
Other attendees included the Rev. Julia Burkey of First Church, Middletown Board of Education candidate Lisa Loomis-Davern, Thea Racelis of South Congregational Church, Damon Gibbs of Grace and Mercy Family Ministries in Portland, Erin Livensparger of Planned Parenthood and Alicia Strong from the Common Ground Institute.
An estimated 500 people attended the Middletown event, which was organized by a number of local churches and community group members, including Dolly Haddad, Melinda Brainerd and Bobbye Knoll Peterson, members of Action Together CT — Middlesex County.
“We need to build relationships with people whose beliefs we find vile. How can we expect them to learn to treat others as human beings if we do not treat them as human beings?” Loomis told those gathered. “Building relationships is a lot harder than reposting an article on Facebook or dismissing people as ignorant and evil.”
“Building relationships — that is the hard work that we, white people, must do because white supremacy is white peoples’ problem, and, for far too long, we have looked to people of color to try to solve it,” Loomis said.
Co-organizers of the rally Melinda Brainerd and Haddad said they were impressed at the turnout.
“I did not expect as many people as we had . ... I had told the mayor’s chief of staff that I anticipated maybe 200 people,” Brainerd said.
“We asked our speakers to emphasize peace and unity, and if they had actions to give attendees to continue with those ideas, that would be a great takeaway for people. It really was about togetherness, love and peace,” she said. “My big takeaway personally is that these types of events are easy ways for people to feel like they are a part of something and it doesn’t take people too far out of their comfort zone.”
Haddad concurred with Loomis. “It isn’t the responsibility of people of color to fight racism,” she said. “(White Americans) need to denounce racism and violence whenever we see it. Stop letting comments slide. Step up and show up.”
The president’s refusal over the weekend to initially call out white supremacists has generated mounting criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
That criticism was bolstered by comments made in Charlottesville Saturday by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
“This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back,” Duke said, according to the Daily Mail. “We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump.”
The background for the events in Charlottesville is the continuing debate over whether it is appropriate to continue to display statues of Confederate heroes from the Civil War — or fly the Confederate battle flag — in public parks.
The movement to remove those tributes has gained momentum since the murders of nine black worshippers at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015 by a self-described white nationalist.
The white nationalist group that organized the initial event in Charlottesville said it was protesting the city’s intention to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a city park.