At what price silence?

I recently received the following via email:

Being anti- anything is not only not productive, but actually feeds our attention and energy to something we want to starve. People showing up at this rally to protest the rally will be sending the message that the neo-Nazis are to be taken seriously, and that they are to be feared.

Question: Are the neo-Nazis to be taken seriously?

From the news today:

Authorities were trying to determine Tuesday what caused a teenager to gun down his grandfather, put on the man's police-issue belt and bulletproof vest, and drive his marked squad car to a high school, where he began shooting his classmates at will.

Jeff Weise, whom authorities said was 16 or 17, killed nine people and wounded seven Monday before trading gunfire with a police officer and apparently shooting himself. His motive still wasn't clear Tuesday, but the FBI said the shootings appeared to have been planned in advance....

Authorities were investigating whether Weise, who dressed in black and wrote stories about zombies, may have posted messages on a neo-Nazi Web site expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler.

Using the handle "Todesengel" — German for "Angel of Death" — the writer identified himself as Jeff Weise of the Red Lake Reservation. In April 2004, he referenced being accused of "a threat on the school I attend," though it says he was later cleared.

I have to respectfully disagree with Elissa, the email writer, that we don't need to take the neo-Nazis seriously and ought to just stay home while they and their associates, including the KKK & the Aryan Nation, gather at Yorktown.

We tried it in 1937. That tactic of disagreement has a poor track record.

Non-violence, social justice, diversity, & tolerance

Our key values: Non-violence, social justice, diversity, & tolerance.

I noted below the assertion in several articles that CER and the Rally for Social Justice are involved in violent direct action is incorrect. The report said,

The application by the Center for Education Rights requested permission to stage a non-confrontational rally in a location apart from the Socialist Reform Movement's gathering. Center organizers staged the same sort of counter-rally at Valley Forge last year to protest a Socialist Reform Movement gathering there. The events ended with four arrests and some injuries, Litterst said.

Mr. Litterst is a spokesperson for the National Park in Yorktown; he missed the events in Valley Forge last September. Here's how one reporter noted the violence:

The lone incident of violence — a fist-fight between a member of the National Socialist Movement and members of the Anti-Racist Action Network — resulted in an arrest.

While I respect non-violent direction action, I believe that violent direction action is overstepping the bounds. And further, I suggest that doing something positive, rather than meeting hatred with hatred, is the true, and best, way of creating change.

If you are for non-violence, social justice, diversity, and tolerance, then, please, join us at the Yorktown Rally for Social Justice. And, if you want to be a part in the creation of the Rally, please contact us. We are looking for people who want to help out, for people who want to create something positive.

The wires are bursting with news... well, sort'a

Well, the wires are clicking...

Over at the Daily Press they've posted:

Groups plan to protest neo-Nazi rally
BY DAVID CHERNICKY

YORK -- A National Parks Service spokesman today confirmed that two groups have received permission to counter-protest a planned June 25 rally by a neo-Nazi group at Yorktown Battlefield.

The park service received applications on February 28 from the Center for Education Rights of Valley Forge, Pa., and a Newport News synagogue, Congregation Zion's Sake, said spokesman Mike Litterst.

The groups want to rally at the battlefield on the same day that the neo-Nazi group Socialist Reform Movement plans to demonstrate.

The park service approved both applications, Litterst said.

The application by the Center for Education Rights requested permission to stage a non-confrontational rally in a location apart from the Socialist Reform Movement's gathering. Center organizers staged the same sort of counter-rally at Valley Forge last year to protest a Socialist Reform Movement gathering there. The events ended with four arrests and some injuries, Litterst said.

Rabbi Eric Carlson, the other applicant, said he's received a letter from the park service approving the synagogue's application, but the park service didn't specify the location where the group will gather.

"We can quite easily muster 200 to 250 people through our own synagogue," Carlson said, and planners are asking other local synagogues to join the protest.

The arrest & injuries thing is a bit of misinformation. The quote in the article is "The events ended with four arrests and some injuries," Litterst said.Okay, that's true. The day of the Nazi/KKK rally four folks were arrested and some people were injured... but not at the Rally for Social Justice. The Rally for Social Justice was well away from the Nazi gathering; it was peaceful and non-violent; no attendee of the Rally for Social Justice was arrested or injured. Those arrested & injured included people attending the NSM rally and those conducting violent direct action against the Nazi/KKK attendees.

The Rally for Social Justice held -- and holds -- to key values including

• Social Justice


• Diversity


• Tolerance


• Non-violence

Join us...

CER & the Rally for Social Justice is not alone in wanting non-violence opposition in Yorktown

The Associated Press has picked up the story of our upcoming Rally for Social Justice. This afternoon I had a long chat with Sue Lindsy of the local AP bureau; what follows is her story.

Hundreds plan protests to neo-Nazi rally at Revolutionary War site

SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press

NORFOLK, Va. - Peaceful protesters are planning to show up by the hundreds to exercise their own First Amendment rights to free speech when a neo-Nazi group holds a rally in June on a Revolutionary War battlefield.

Two groups have been granted permits for counterdemonstrations on June 25 at the same time that the National Socialist Movement rallies at the Yorktown Battlefield, Mike Litterst, a National Park Service spokesman, said Wednesday.

The Center for Educational Rights, based in Valley Forge, Pa., expects at least 400 people will listen to speeches, music and poetry supporting social justice, diversity and peace. Congregation Zion's Sake of Newport News estimates up to 500 people from area churches will gather to demonstrate ethnic and racial harmony.

The National Socialist Movement, which claims to be the nation's largest Nazi party, projects a crowd of 300 for its rally.

Commander Jeff Schoep said while his organization is "obviously a pro-white group," the movement is not a hate group. "We're a political party," he said.

The counter groups both plan peaceful demonstrations to what they perceive as a message of intolerance.

The Park Service's Litterst said organizations often overestimate the crowd size for rallies, but he wouldn't be surprised if other groups also seek to demonstrate at Yorktown that day.

"I'm sure this is just the start," he said.

In its Park Service application for a rally permit, Zion's Sake requested "close proximity to the NSM."

The Messianic Jewish congregation wants the neo-Nazis "to see love," Rabbi Eric Carlson said.

"It's a small planet," he said. "When you look at a satellite photo of the Earth you don't see races or borders."

The educational rights group, on the other hand, hopes to be as far from the neo-Nazis as possible, said Peter Stinson of Portsmouth, one of the rally organizers.

"My hope for the day is that I don't see a brown shirt," Stinson said, referring to the Nazi uniform.

The Pennsylvania organization, which is headed by Stinson's brother, Philip, held a similar demonstration at Valley Forge when the National Socialist Movement rallied there last September.

Its plan in Virginia is to act as an umbrella organization for area groups that want to protest the Nazi gathering, Peter Stinson said.

The group received a grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center for the rally last fall and hopes to receive the same backing for Yorktown, Stinson said.

Zion's Sake has asked both Jewish and Christian congregations to join its rally. Carlson said the racially diverse congregation is not experienced at demonstrations and doesn't have a firm game plan, but felt moved to protest.

"Sometimes you have to put some prayer into action," he said.

"This is more significant because of our Jewish background," said Carlson, who lost relatives in the Holocaust. "It's a grim reminder of the darker side of our humanity."

ON THE NET

Center for Educational Rights

Congregation Zion's Sake

National Socialist Movement

I hope that we and Congregation Zion's Sake can get together and merge efforts, showing the neo-Nazis, the KKK, our community, and the country that peace and non-violence, diversity and tolerance, are stronger than hatred and division.

Peace.

For all of you who want to lend a hand with planning & preparation, now's the time. Contact us.

Application for Special Use Permit approved by Superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park

P. Daniel Smith, the Superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park, has approved the Center for Educational Rights Special Use Permit to hold the Yorktown Rally for Social Justice. As Phil Stinson, President of the not-for-profit Center for Educational Rights, noted in his application

This event -- THE YORKTOWN RALLY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE -- will be a peaceful and non-confrontational counter-rally to the rally of the National Socialist Movement that is scheduled to take place simultaneously at Yorktown National Battlefield. The Rally for Social Justice will express First Amendment views through featured speakers and live music.

That's it folks: We're on! Now we need to get moving: volunteers needed. We hope to have more than 500 people out for this event; your help & your participation is vitally needed. Stand-up and show the NSM & the KKK that our community is one that values diversity, tolerance, and social justice.