Board spars over Charlotte

The Montgomery County Commissioners set aside a few moments before and after Thursday’s meeting to address a topic of national importance.

As the first order of business, after the Pledge of Allegiance, each of the commissioners made a brief statement about the tragic events Aug. 13 in Charlottesville, Va., in which a counter-protester was killed and two Virginia state troopers lost their lives responding to a “Unite the Right” rally opposing the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park, which was formerly named after the Confederate general.

“The response that I’ve seen across Montgomery County to the past weekend’s tragic events in Charlottesville has been reaffirming and inspirational to me,” said Commissioners’ Chairwoman Valerie Arkoosh, noting held and scheduled county-wide peace and unity vigils.

She said she spoke at one such vigil in Abington Township Wednesday night in which hundred of peo- ple “from all backgrounds faiths and political parties” were “drawn together with the firm understanding that creating a moral equivalency between hatemongers like the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups and those that stand up in opposition to racism and anti-Semitism is just plain wrong.”

“Therewere not two sides to the reprehensible actions taken last week in Charlottesville that left an innocent woman, Heather Heyer, dead as well as two Virginia state troopers, Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper Berke M. M. Bates,” Arkoosh said.