Posted on 01/13/2003 7:45:14 AM PST by ozone1
Tolerance triumphs as racists attract few
By KELLEY BOUCHARD, GREGORY D. KESICH and JOSIE HUANG, Staff Writers
LEWISTON - Thousands of voices supporting diversity drowned out the small contingent of racists who came here Saturday to protest Maine's growing Somali population.
Shouting down intolerance and singing songs of solidarity, more than 4,500 people converged at the Bates College Merrill Gymnasium for the pro-diversity Many & One rally, organized to counter a neo-Nazi meeting held at the same time on the outskirts of the city.
In striking contrast, 32 supporters of the racist World Church of the Creator listened to a few mostly anti-Semitic lectures in a city-owned building just off Exit 13 on the Maine Turnpike. Jon Fox, head of the Illinois chapter of the group, spoke in place of the group's leader, Matthew Hale, who was arrested last week on charges of soliciting the murder of a federal judge. Hale planned to give a speech titled "The Invasion of Maine by Somalis and How We Can End It."
Despite temperatures in the low 20s, 450 anti-racism protesters and racist sympathizers gathered outside the racist meeting. The dull roar of shouting seeped through the walls of the meeting hall.
About 230 state, local and federal police contolled crowds at both events, which resulted in only one arrest. Metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs were used at both sites. Streets were blocked and parking was prohibited in many areas. Picket signs, cameras, water bottles, gym bags and any items that could be used as weapons were banned.
The pro-diversity rally triumphed in volume, attendance and number of speakers. More than 20 people took to the podium at the 2 1/2-hour event, which had an overflow crowd. Maine's most prominent civil rights leaders and top politicos were there, including the congressional delegation and newly inaugurated Gov. John Baldacci.
"We come together as one in Maine when it comes to neighborliness, when it comes to tolerance, when it comes to respect for one another," Baldacci said. "This is not a haven for any hate group."
Thousands of people wore "Where's the mayor?" stickers, calling attention to the absence of Mayor Laurier Raymond, who is vacationing in Florida.
Hale set his sights on the whitest state in the nation in November, after Raymond asked Somalis to stop moving to this mostly Franco-American, Roman Catholic city of 36,000. Raymond said the city was "maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally."
More than 1,100 Somalis have moved to Lewiston from other U.S. cities since February 2001. They were attracted by cheaper housing, lower crime and more accessible public services. They are Muslims who escaped clan warfare that has devastated their East African country.
At the pro-diversity rally, one of the nation's most prominent Somali leaders, Omar Jamal, head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, noted the absence of the mayor and members of the city council. He also called for Raymond's resignation, which the Lewiston chapter of the Somali justice group repeated at a news conference after the rally.
"The mayor is in Florida playing golf today and his city is on fire," Jamal said. "I challenge you to do the right thing."
Jamal pointed out that most Somali residents were also missing from the rally.
"We have handfuls of immigrants who are very fearful," he said. "Nobody is supposed to be fearful here."
The rally was organized by a coalition of 200 community leaders to oppose hatred and support the safety of all Lewiston residents.
"We've all come together to say whether you're gay or straight or whether you have this ability or disability, either you're this color, or that color or this relgion or that, we say this will be our community," said Mark Schlotterbeck, leader of the Many & One Coalition. The group organized the rally and quarter-mile procession to the Lewiston Memorial Armory that immediately followed.
Former Lewiston Mayor John Jenkins, the state's first African-American mayor and state senator, was master of ceremonies.
"This is a defining moment in history," said Jenkins, as people clapped and pumped their fists in the air.
Six children of different faiths quietly offered prayers, accompanied by a flutist from the Micmac tribe. Speaker after speaker stressed the importance of accepting people of all backgrounds.
"We will strive to ensure that all citizens regardless of race and ethnicity are guaranteed their God-given right," said Winston McGill, president of the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Some speakers said that while white supremacists from out of town were a threat, Maine people also had to make sure to stamp out hate. The Rev. Bill Gordon, an openly gay pastor of Northern Lights Metropolitan Community Church in Vassalboro, got a standing ovation saying how discrimination of all kinds must stop.
"Discrimination and hatred are not something that has been imported from outside of this city and state and brought to us," Gordon said.
State Attorney General G. Steven Rowe targeted his criticism directly at the white supremacists.
"I have a message for these hate-mongers," he said. "You are wasting your time here."
The rally also included a reading of a letter from legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, who fought one of his early fights in Lewiston in 1965.
"Somali immigrants, like any Americans, have the unalienable right to live anywhere in the United States that they choose," Ali wrote. "Moreover, they have the responsibility to raise their children in cities and villages that are clean and safe."
Donna Rowe, a child-care worker from Auburn, said she was pleasantly surprised by the turnout for the rally.
"I thought people were more apathetic," said Rowe, 49, who came with her 14-year-old daughter and husband Tom, who performed at the rally. "It says that people care more about their neighbors than you'd think."
Robert Rovener, a 41-year-old physician from Cumberland, came with his wife and their two pre-school age sons.
"We thought it would be good for our children to be exposed to this and to see what's it like for people to support human rights and equality," he said.
After the rally, thousands of participants marched a couple blocks from the auditorium to the Lewiston Armory. Spilling into the road, the group sang songs and signed the petitions calling for Raymond's resignation before the bitter cold caused the crowd to disperse.
Several miles away, in a city-owned building next to the Maine Army National Guard Armory, the neo-Nazi meeting at the center of the day's events was small and strangely subdued. Twenty-seven men and five women sat in metal folding chairs, listening attentively to three speakers lecture on the white race, which the speakers claimed is under attack.
About 20 of the spectators came with Jon Fox, delivered by Lewiston police in two vans that picked up the group members at Maine Turnpike Exit 12 in Auburn. The rest were supporters or observers who came on their own. A handful said they were from Maine, with the bulk of the group coming from other New England states.
Police set up 50 folding chairs, tied together in groups of five, so they could not be used as weapons. They also taped heavy cardboard over all of the room's windows, to protect the people inside from broken glass in case objects were thrown at the windows. The meeting went on uninterrupted, as protesters shouted outside.
Several speakers commented on the absence of Lewiston's mayor. "I'd like to thank Mayor Larry Raymond," said Rob Freeman, of Old Lyme, Conn. " I know he says he has two black grandchildren and says that he's not a racist, but that's fine. What he did challenged these people, and I hope he enjoys Florida."
The speakers criticized African immigrants, who they say receive unfair benefits from the government.
"These people are the enemy - make no mistake," said David Stearns of Portland, who is the church's Maine contact. "If they get a chance they will probably slit your throat. . . . These people are not bringing anything good into our community."
While the influx of Somali immigrants sparked the racist group's interests in Maine, the speakers said little about them Saturday. Far more time was spent discussing an international Jewish committee, which the speakers blamed for the rise of Christianity, all wars including World War I and World War II, and the birth of the Soviet Union.
Stearns also blamed Jews for tensions over Somali immigration.
"Bringing in the Somali immigrants was a Jewish plan of divide and conquer," he said. "That's why we are in here and there are demonstrators out there."
Fox said the World Church of the Creator is not based on hatred. "I don't teach my children to hate someone else because of their color, but to love themselves and their race," Fox said.
Fox outlined the tenets of his church, which he said is not based on worship of a deity. It is organized among four principals, which he said were "sound mind, sound body, sound society and sound environment."
The church encourages its members to live in small, single-race communities, and farm their own food. Fox said members are discouraged from abusing drugs, and even avoiding the use of prescription drugs, which he said "are handed out by Jewish doctors."
The racist meeting ended squarely at 3 p.m., when police interrupted Fox's speech and asked him to wind it up. Then the participants who came with Fox were spirited out of the room to a waiting van and were taken back to their cars without the counter- demonstrators' knowledge. Those who came to the meeting on their own waited inside the hall until the demonstration outside dispersed.
No direct effort was made to sign up members, but Stearns said the group now has a foothold in Maine.
"There is no stopping us, so don't bother trying," he said. "Do not get into my face and talk to me about diversity . . . we are not violent people until you get into our face."
Supporters, protesters and curious bystanders started gathering outside the racist meeting shortly after 10 a.m. By noon there were about 40 people, corraled behind concrete barriers along Goddard Road. Robert Hoyt, 30, of Portland, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct when he tried to block a racist supporter from attending the meeting.
Shortly after 1 p.m., as the meeting inside got under way, the crowd outside swelled to about 450 when a parade of anti-racism protesters marched down Goddard Road. Many carried signs and shouted "Death to Nazis." Some wore black hoods or scarves over their faces. Some banged on 5-gallon buckets as make-shift drums. A few took turns leading the crowd in shouting slogans over a portable loudspeaker.
"Hey, Nazis, you can't hide! We charge you with genocide!"
The protesters represented several groups, including the NorthEastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists and the Progressive Labor Party. Most came from outside Maine. Some suggested that the pro-diversity rally was tainted because officials such as Attorney General G. Steven Rowe participated.
"We will not allow the fascist movement to grow in the U.S.," shouted Cathy Wells of Boston, a member of the Progressive Labor Party, over the loudspeaker.
Anti-racism protesters circled the speakers and repeated their chants. Police in riot gear stood in a solemn line along the armory building and across Goddard Road. Firefighters positioned themselves on a ladder truck, ready to turn a water hose on the crowd if a riot broke out.
It never did. Beneath the constant chanting and occasional shouts, heated but controlled conversations occurred spontaneously between people who sympathized with the World Church of the Creator and those who opposed the group.
Vanessa Williams, 25, of Lewiston told a handful of protesters that she and her friends have had several confrontations with Somalis. She said she's worried about Lewiston's future and the favoritism she feels Somalis are receiving as newcomers to Lewiston.
"Do you really want to dedicate your life to hate?" Vanessa Torres, 21, of Portland, asked Williams.
Williams defended her position and questioned the intentions of the anti-racism protesters. "It's OK to say death to certain people, but if we have a problem with the Somalis moving here, we're at fault," Williams said. "I thought these (anti-racism) people were here against hate, but that's all they're about."
Marc Cyr, 44, of Auburn observed from the sidelines, arms folded. When one protester confronted him about his views, Cyr said his main concern with Somalis coming to Lewiston was the financial impact to the community. Many Somalis have received various kinds of public assistance since arriving in Lewiston.
"When my grandparents came here, they worked. They didn't ask for handouts," Cyr said of his French-Canadian ancestors. The anti-racist protester, who declined to give his name, disputed Cyr's claim that Somalis came to Lewiston to take advantage of the welfare system.
Police informed the protesters when the racist meeting ended and asked them to disburse. Some protesters demanded proof that the neo-Nazis were gone. One man went with police to check the meeting room. He returned and verified that only a few reporters and photographers remained.
As the crowd walked away, a few were still banging on their buckets.
Do we have an oxymoron here?
ozone, don't forget: The Somali's will only work from 10am until 2pm. Period! That is all they can work. Now, who in their right mind is going to hire someone who can only put in a 4 hour day!
This is not one of those situations where you earn respect by saying "I usually disagree with them but...."
Never give succor to people like that. Ever. Some people are too evil for that.
Your so right. I can't repeat this enough: one young woman went to the shelter in Lewiston to get diapers for her baby. The Somali women got there first, and took every last one of them! Leaving nothing for the young woman. They DO consume everything!
Oh yes! I guess that makes me a racist because I care more for our own then I do immigrants. But how can anyone think this Somali situation is a Good Thing?!
For their part, the politicians fall all over themselves to 'help' this 'disenfranchised minority'. Gov't programs, pure-Spanish language curriculums, etc. For the most part, the Mexicans don't want it.
I guess that the most feared words in the world are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".
As an aside, there is a great guy from Mexico on our cleaning crew. Whenever I'm working late (all too often), he always makes it a point to talk to me. Wants to practice his English, you see. He says that he thinks when his English gets better, he can get promoted. I agree, and am always willing to talk. The rest of the crew are all from Haiti or Sudan. They think that he is a suck-up and make fun of him. Just a little insight into differences between the two cultures.
He has managed to blur the issue and make it about himself and his group. He thrived after his "martyr" Benjamin Smith killed two and wounded nine during his shooting spree over the 4th of July, 1999 shooting spree--he was on numerous cable talk shows (a zit-faced creep in a cheap brown suit), and that's what it was about--getting his loathesome message out. He's done wherever he goes.
this reminds me of the children's story:
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie ...
Yes! I had forgotten about that one.
Omar Jamal, head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, noted the absence of the mayor and members of the city council. He also called for Raymond's resignation, which the Lewiston chapter of the Somali justice group repeated at a news conference after the rally.
"Still, Jamal has emerged since Sept. 11 as the most mentioned Somali in Minnesota, at least in the mainstream media. The Star Tribune quoted him 38 times during 2002 on matters such as the March police shooting of a machete-wielding Somali man (Jamal called for the dismissal of Minneapolis Police Chief Robert Olson)."
Mime or puppeteer?
My problem with the Somalis (other than the obvious welfare entitlement attitude)is that they show no intent of assimilating. From what I've read most have been in this country for over 10 years and still don't or won't speak the language.
Our immigration potlicies are out of control Pat Buchannan was right on that one. Immigrants comming to this country should be willing to BECOME Americans and be willing to defend our country. Otherwise stay in your (turd world). I see "multi-culturalim" as a divide and conquer tactic that will eventually destroy this nation.
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