Fighting fire with fire after Charlottesville

Last Friday night, white supremacists carrying tiki torches chatting racist slogans marched through the streets of Charlottesville, Va. It was a scene eerily reminiscent of pre-World War II Nazi Germany, or a midnight ride of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s deep South.

Wednesday night that jarring scene in Virginia was marked in Delaware County – once again by fire. Only this time it was candles. You might say those who gathered at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Swarthmore decided to fight fire with fire. At the end of the service sponsored by the Interfaith Council of Southern Delaware County, many in the crowd of more than 200 lit candles to signal their resolve in taking a stand against the darkness, the hate that oozed out of Charlottesville last weekend.

The Rev. Sarah Cooper Searight, associate pastor at Swarthmore Presbyterian Church, noted the torches in Charlottesville were wielded as a weapon of hate and fear.

“Tonight we use fire in a different way,” she said. “We use fire as a sign of our commitment, our lament, our repentance, our hope, our prayers, our unity.”

It did not take long for the echoes from Charlottesville to reverberate in southeastern Pennsylvania.

First, hundreds gathered Sunday at the Media Courthouse to take a stand against hate.

Then the Haverford Board of Commissioners became the first local municipal ruling body to take an official stance condemning the actions that unfolded in Virginia.The board voted unanimously to issue a proclamation “strongly condemning the violence, neo-Nazi, racist and anti-Semitic symbols and language used by some of the participants in a white supremacist rally.”

On Tuesday Delaware County Council joined the chorus, voting to send President Donald Trump a resolution condemning Nazism and racism as an assault, an evil that needs to be decried.

“The promotion of Nazism and racism in the United States of America is an assault on the truth and rights that we, as Americans, cherish and for which truths and the rights of millions of Americans fought for during World War II,” the resolution states.

The message also is being heard in Harrisburg.

State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17, is asking his 49 fellow state senators to sign on to a resolution condemning “bigotry, violence, and the warped philosophy of neo-Nazis and white supremacists.”

Leach is running for the Democratic nomination to face Republican incumbent 7th District congressman U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan.

Republican state senators, Sen. Tom McGarrigle, R-26, of Springfield, and Sen. Tom Killion, R-9, of Middletown, indicated they will back the resolution.

“The hatred and bigotry perpetrated by white supremacists in Charlottesville was atrocious and cannot be tolerated,” Killion said.

“I condemn such repulsive behavior. The diversity of the people of this country is what makes us great.”

Finally, Wednesday night in Philadelphia, thousands hit the streets in what they vowed was a response to white supremacy.

Rabbi Jeremy Gerber, of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Wallingford, opened Wednesday night’s service by reminding those present of the great challenge each of us faces as this nation continues to grapple with a persistent, virulent racism that, base on the actions in Charlottesville, is actually gathering steam, proudly spewing hate for all to see, as opposed to hiding under a white hood.

“We cannot solve racism, you and I,” Gerber told those gathered.” We are not perfect But we are part of the solution.”

Part of that solution was on display this week in municipalities across the region.

It is a decision each of us must make, the decision to reject hate and bigotry.

“We cannot fix our nation,” Gerber said. “But we also cannot allow ourselves to become so numbed and so desensitized or to accept racist marches with obscene chants and to let that become the new normal.”

There is nothing normal about hate. It is abhorrent. Always has been. Always will be.

Want to make America great again?

Start by repudiating the repugnant speech and actions we saw last weekend in Charlottesville.

It’s already starting here. And not a minute too soon.