Enjoyment & diversity: We stood, we stand, for tolerance, diversity, non-violence, and social justice

And what, exactly did those who attend the Rally do? Well, for one thing, they enjoyed some great music.


They hung out and enjoyed the hot, summer breeze coming off the York River.

Sure, those of us at the Rally for Social Justice didn't raise our arms in salute or shout slogans that could barely be heard across an open field.

We did play a little impromtu whiffle ball, a folding chair serving as home plate.

This is what we mean by saying the Rally for Social Justice is a creative, non-confrontational response: We created something; we did not just confront.

PLEASE NOTE: These photographs are Copyright (c) 2005 by Cathy Dixson and are used here by permission. These photographs may not be used further without the written permission of Cathy Dixson. All rights reserved.

She's only fourteen!

To say that Margot MacDonald is unique is understatement. Afterall, we are all unique; that's one of the foundations of diversity. Each of us brings strengths, weaknesses, experiences, and skills to the table. Well, in Margot's case, she's bringing quite a bit as a singer/songwriter... and she's just headed into high school.

That's unique. While most youth her age are playing video games or little league or just chilling, Margot is honing her musical skills. She plays guitar; she plays keyboards; she sings; she writes her own lyrics; she writes her own music. She is a busy young lady.

We were all so impressed with Margot and her music... and not because she's a young teenager, but because it was good. Bright and compassionate, Margot landed her spot on the Rally stage through her bid at SonicBids. We are so glad we choose her, and we are honored that Margot and her family would spend the afternoon with us. This is, folks, the power of commitment to diversity, tolerance, non-violence, and social justice.

Keep an ear out for this young lady; she's going to be making sounds on a radio near you... very soon.

PLEASE NOTE: This photograph is Copyright (c) 2005 by Cathy Dixson and is used here by permission. This photograph may not be used further without the written permission of Cathy Dixson. All rights reserved.

Let us live in a world with no fear

Scooter Scudieri, a veteran from the Valley Forge Rally for Social Justice, brought his powerful music to the fields of Yorktown. Scooter is a self-taught guitarist who writes his own in-your-face lyrics and music. He is out to change not only the record industry, but the world, one person, one song, at a time.

I play my music as if my very life depends on it, because it does. I spend every day creating, focusing, and channeling energy into my writing and music. It is my vision to help transform the industry by turning positive thought into action.

This website has become a launch pad for my Music, Mission, and Method. By merging online and offline techniques I have created a focal point not only for my message, but for the movement which is redefining the way music is created and distributed.

I am grateful to be alive at a time of such great change. Fear prevents us from becoming our full possible selves. Our potential is unlimited if we only tap into the source.

We are greatful for Scooter joining us in Yorktown, and we know our paths will cross again.

Let us live in a world without fear.

PLEASE NOTE: This photograph is Copyright (c) 2005 by Cathy Dixson and is used here by permission. This photograph may not be used further without the written permission of Cathy Dixson. All rights reserved.

Ours was a gathering of love and peace

For those of us that attended the Rally for Social Justice and didn't make the walk down Surrender Road, this photo pretty much captures the spirit of the day. Hugs, not straight arm salutes, ruled the day.

PLEASE NOTE: This photograph is Copyright (c) 2005 by Cathy Dixson and is used here by permission. This photograph may not be used further without the written permission of Cathy Dixson. All rights reserved.

These are some fun doctors

The Rally opened with the Phun Doctors. Dr. George is lead vocals and keyboards; the Doctors are a premier classic rock & oldies band from Chesapeake. George's PhD is in urban studies & organizational leadership; he's a former helicopter pilot with the U.S. Navy.

On guitar, we found Dr. "Mad Dog" Mike, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a 20-year Supply Corps veteran with the Navy. Mike holds a PhD in mathematics and provided lead riffs, licks, and signatures.

And standing in for a missing Phun Doctor was Dr. Kevin from Seed Is. Kevin holds an honorary doctorate in musicology with an emphasis in percussion. Kevin joined the Phun Doctors never having played with the Doctors George and Mike before. As nearly everyone in the audience noted, it didn't sound that way. The three Phun Doctors jammed a sweet set of oldies, sending tunes all the way up to the parking lot.

PLEASE NOTE: These photographs are Copyright (c) 2005 by Cathy Dixson and are used here by permission. These photographs may not be used further without the written permission of Cathy Dixson. All rights reserved.

Dogs and horses enjoyed the hot day, too

And even the dogs came out to enjoy the day. The Virginia State Police swept our fenced in festival area to ensure we didn't have any explosive devices. They were certainly not taking any chances.

And to add to the "not taking any chances," law enforcement was complete with mounted officers. Our mounted officers were from the National Park Police. At the south end of the Park, mounted officers from the Portsmouth Police Department on the southside of Hampton Roads kept the peace.

PLEASE NOTE: These photographs are Copyright (c) 2005 by Cathy Dixson and are used here by permission. These photographs may not be used further without the written permission of Cathy Dixson. All rights reserved.

Law enforcement and the Rally

Early Saturday morning, both Phil and I met with reps from the Virginia State Police. Here Phil is debating the finer points of security and enforcement with two senior officers from the Commonwealth. More than 170 officers from the State Police were on hand to ensure a peaceful day. Their presence was more than welcome.

Our most humble thanks go to the men and women of the Virginia State Police.

PLEASE NOTE: This photograph is Copyright (c) 2005 by Cathy Dixson and is used here by permission. This photograph may not be used further without the written permission of Cathy Dixson. All rights reserved.

Thanks are owed to many for Rally's success

I continue to recover from the weekend. All the rented and borrowed materials are back where they came from, and life returns to some sense of normalcy.

An event like the Rally for Social Justice takes many peoples' contributions to ensure the "show" can go on. Over the next several days, we'll be publicly thanking contributers and volunteers. I start today with several key volunteers whose last minute contributions ensured the show would go on. Without their time & talent, we might still be sitting in the field off Ballard Street.

My thanks go to Chuck, Pat, & Andrew for their help on Saturday and before:

• To Chuck for his invaluable prep work including soliciting donations & purchasing needed supplies & obtaining the Rally t-shirts; for his strong & tall assistance raising and striking the tents; and for his assistance in parking cars.



• To Pat for his financial contributions, for flying down from the Big Apple in order to attend & help out; for raising & striking tents; for assisting in the parking lot; and for ensuring good order & discipline.



• To Andrew for wrestling with nearly a ton of weights; for spending more than 12-hours helping with tents & car parking when, as a young teenager, he might have rather been doing nearly anything else; and for keeping me company.

Gentlemen, thank you.

Here's a picture of Andrew, late in the afternoon; I think he's flagging in a 747.
And here is Pat, along with me and the baby. I'd like to note the baby did not help much at all.
Somehow, Chuck avoided the photographer. I'm not sure how he managed that.

More thanks -- and photographs from the Rally day -- are forthcoming.

News round-up: Yorktown in the press

Thought I'd give a round-up of the traditional, mainstream print media's take on Saturday's events...

From the Daily Press, published on the Peninsula here in southeastern Virginia, we have Tamara Dietrich, a columnist. She compared the day to a circus, although I'm not sure she found the clowns all that funny.

It was Saturday in Yorktown, and the carnival had arrived.

SWAT sharpshooters; women in tallit prayer shawls; young toughs chanting, "Death, death, death to the Nazis"; flower children; messianic Jews; guerrilla anti-racists; enough firepower to overthrow Cornwallis all over again; and baffled senior citizens with tote bags and sensible shoes, stumbling upon it all.

Carol Scott of the Daily Press noted that "counterdemonstrators outnumbered the white supremacists at the battlefield on Saturday."

Saturday's three rallies at the battlefield - one led by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement and two counter-rallies led by the messianic Jewish synagogue Congregation Zion's Sake and the Center for Education Rights - ended with no arrests, said National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst. There were no injuries; a handful of people were treated for heat-related issues, he said.

More than 500 counterdemonstrators attended the congregation's rally. The center's "Rally for Tolerance" brought in about 250, and some of that number attended the Zion's Sake rally as well, said center President Phil Stinson.

The southside newspaper, the Virginian Pilot, sent Kristina Herrndobler to cover the news. She wrote,

Fewer than 150 members and supporters of the National Socialist Movement gathered for speeches by their own members and members of the Ku Klux Klan. As they faced the counter demonstrators on the other side, group members wearing Nazi uniforms with swastika armbands shouted Sieg Heil.

Some 500 counter-demonstrators, including members family attends synagogue, and Anti-Racist Action, had flags and posters of their own. One read Fight Terrorism, Smash the Klan. Another read, No tanks in Gaza, No Nazis in Yorktown. A second counter-demonstration, sponsored by the Center for Education Rights, was held about a halfmile away.

She also wrote,

Peter Stinson, a local organizer for the Center for Education Rights peace demonstration, said more police officers than activists attended their rally. But Stinson credits the police force for keeping the day free of violence.

Yes, the men and women of law enforcement were out in force. I'll note the Virginia State troopers who were at the Rally for Social Justice site were extremely personable and professional. We couldn't have asked for better law enforcement personnel; and clearly, we couldn't have asked for more... ;-)

Sue Lindsey of the Associated Press covered the event. She noted,

About 150 members of the National Socialist Movement and their supporters gathered at the Yorktown Battlefield to honor George Washington and other founding fathers of the United States whom they said held white separatist and anti-Jewish views - a position disputed by most scholars.

Many wore Nazi uniforms with swastika armbands, while others identified themselves as members of the Ku Klux Klan and various skinhead groups.

"This is sacred ground," said Jeff Schoep of Minneapolis, Commander of the National Socialist Movement, which bills itself as the largest Nazi party in the United States.

Her story went out over the wire and was picked up by more than 200 news outlets. This site has a photo from the AP; this is probably a better view than all the counter-protestors on Surrender Road had. When you're more than 250 yards away, people look like ants...

CNN (I know, they're not print media... but they've posted words online) also included the day's festivities in their reporting. Their film coverage also included aerial video, likely provided in a feed from the law enforcement helicopters which provided real-time surveillance video to the Incident Command Post headed by Chief Ranger Nash; a still frame of the video is posted here.

National Socialist Movement leader Jeff Schoep railed against immigrants, calling them "putrid scum" that are "pouring over our borders, destroying our culture, and robbing us of our heritage."

"We must secure the existence of white people and the future of white children," another speaker said....

Bill White, a spokesman for the movement -- which calls itself "America's Nazi Party" -- acknowledged the turnout was not large....

In a nearby field -- separated by barricades from the Neo-Nazi rally -- about 250 counter demonstrators shouted for an end to such hatred. The protest was organized by a messianic synagogue and six other religious institutions....

About a mile away, a second counter demonstration was held. Organizers called it a "tolerance rally." Those participants said shouting at the Neo-Nazis only helps fuel the fire of Neo-Nazi hatred.

By now, frankly, I'm just glad they caught one of our four key values.

Bill Geroux of the Richmond Times Dispatch posted a thoughtful news account. He noted that police outnumbered both the participants at the National Socialist Movement's demonstration site and the counter-protest site sponsored by Zion's Sake.

Police clearly outnumbered both groups put together, though authorities would not say how many officers were deployed.

While officials might not have been telling the press how many officers were at the Park, reliable sources placed the number in excess of 500.

Geroux writes,

The commander of the neo-Nazi group, Jeff Schoep of Minnesota, declared in his speech yesterday that America was being controlled by Jews and ruined by racial integration. He vowed his group would resist such "occupation" and likened them to the patriots led by George Washington who won America's freedom at Yorktown.

"If being proud of your race is hate, then we are a hate group," Schoep shouted over the pounding rotors of a police helicopter.

"If hating foreign occupation makes us a hate group, then we're a hate group." His brown-shirted listeners urged him on with cries of "Sieg Heil" as Nazi flags flapped in the wind.

As to the counter-protest, Geroux notes,

The counter-rally across the battlefield was organized by Rabbi Eric Carlson of Synagogue Zion's Sake in Newport News and attended by members of nearly a dozen other synagogues and churches from Moyock, N.C., to Richmond.

The synagogue group asked for a permit to gather within sight of the neo-Nazis, Carlson said, because "we want them to see the face of love. We've been praying for them all week." The group spent much of the day dancing and singing songs of peace to drown out the distant neo-Nazi speakers.

But the counter-demonstration was joined by a group of about 50 men and women dressed mostly in black and carrying placards with messages such as "Die Nazi Scum." Members of that group, who would not identify themselves to reporters, marched and shouted condemnation of not only the neo-Nazis but the police, court system and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Frankly, it all sounds like a zoo, particularly when compared as to how he describes the Rally for Social Justice:

About a mile from the opposing rallies, a third group, the Pennsylvania-based Center for Education Rights Ltd., held a low-key gathering to promote tolerance.

I'm not sure how one could say Seed Is or the Dave Quicks Band are low-key, but okay. At least nobody was screaming obscenities or wishing people dead.

Diversity. Tolerance. Non-violence. Social Justice.

I continue to be amazed that people on both sides of Surrender Road can't fathom a world that embraces these values.

Well, that's it for the mainstream news round-up. If you have links to other, different, stories covering the event, please post them in the comments section below.

Peace.

Some Sunday evening musings

Here it is, a quiet, rainy evening in Portsmouth, Virginia, and home to excellent eateries such as the Bier Garden and Roger Brown's within block of each other.

In the midst of ruminating about leadership development, I'm struck by an observation from yesterday. At Yorktown, I spent some time directing traffic in the northern parking lot several hundred yards from the Rally for Social Justice site. I spoke with someone in nearly every car that entered while I was in the lot; my fluorescent orange vest and orange traffic flag made quite a fashion statement when taken in concert with my wild blue shorts.

Anyway, here's one of things I was struck with: why is it when we oppose something we feel we must directly confront it? Many of the counter-protesters felt an urge to directly confront the neo-Nazis gathered at the park. They felt to oppose, they had to confront; they wanted to see the people gathered at the National Socialist Movement site. Rather than confront, the Center for Education Rights' approach is to creatively respond to that which is opposed. Confrontation gets nowhere. Certainly, the neo-Nazis were not going to change the opinions of the counter-protestors from the Anti-Racist Action network or Zion's Sake or any other segment of the population. And, just as certainly, the counter-protestors were not going to change the minds of the National Socialist Movement's members or the members of the other white supremist groups in attendance with the neo-Nazis. Confrontation only provides a place for evil to flourish, on both sides of the fence.

But many -- most -- of the people I spoke with wanted to confront. This includes, by the way, one car load of neo-Nazis in brown shirts and one car load of heavily tattooed young men (a swastika prominently displayed on arms) and several other sympathizers to the white supremist movement; most people choose to confront violently (violence as in "vehemence of feeling or expression; fervor" if not "force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing").

So, my question is: why is it that to oppose something, the seeming natural (at least yesterday at the Park) response is to confront?

As a member of my church suggested to me to today, perhaps the Rally for Social Justice response is one for thinking people, people who have a creative understanding, who can see beyond their own point of view, who understand the world is, indeed, a complicated place.

Let us hope that over the coming years, people and communities see there is power in creating a creative, non-confrontational, non-violent, tolerant response to that which goes against humanity.

Diversity. Tolerance. Non-violence. Social justice.

For all.

These are our watch words; these are our values. May we, indeed, live in a world without fear.

Peace.

Rally for Social Justice concludes

Greetings, all... a quick note before I fall asleep: The Yorktown Rally for Social Justice was a superb time and, I think all would agree, a success. While our numbers were lower than we had anticipated (I figured we had some 130 to 150 come through the gate; Phil thought the number was perhaps closer to 250), the music was excellent, the spoken word was excellent, and the cupcakes were excellent. Everyone, from the Holocaust survivor who stopped by to baby Elliot, seemed to enjoy themselves.

To those of you who didn't make it, you missed a super summer festival.

Peace.

Mobile Post: Seed Is, for sure

Seed Is kicked much with their big sound, filling the park with horn and voice. Peace.

Mobile Post: Law enforcement out in force

There are likely more law enforcement officers at the park than all the people demonsrating their right to free speech. Here at the Rally for Social Justice, we have the Virginia State Police providing services: excellent presence.

Mobile Post: What more could we ask for?

Live music. Pizza. Soda. A beautiful sky. What more could we ask for?

Mobile Post: Margot's beautiful voice

Singer Margot MacDonald is here on stage; what a voice. She won a contest to participate. She's 14 and presents like a professional!

Mobile Post: An honorary doctorate?

Phun Doctors are playing now: "Mustang Sally." Their drummer didn't make it, so the drummer from Seed Is jumped in. I guess they're going to give him an honorary doctorate!

Mobile Post: Still setting up.

2nd tent going up. People starting to arrive. I'm beat. Too much exertion. Threw up. Resting now. Still need folks to help.

Mobile Post: The Rally site is excellent.

Contrary to media reports, Yorktown Battlefield is NOT closed. Rally site is excellent. This is going to be a superb time. To get to Rally for Social Justice, take Route 17 to Colonial Parkway; bear right toward Coast Guard Training Center. At end of Parkway, turn right at stop sign. Parking is just a little ways up on the right. Rally sits is just beyond; you'll see our tents. Join us to support diversity, tolerance, non-violence, & social justice.

This is a community-based event

Well, less than 24-hours from now and the Rally for Social Justice will have kicked off. If you are wondering what you can do to help, please know there's plenty you can do.

• In short, we're still looking for a few folks to help set-up and a few folks to help "marshal" and direct parking...


• And, we're still looking for a few donations-in-kind including drinks & food stuffs (picnic-type items, primarily for all the volunteers... marshals, musicians, poets, speakers, technicians, etc.)...


• And, of course we're still looking for financial assistance (to help cover the cost of the stage, tents, sound equipment, generator, trucks, tables & chairs, safety equipment, and a sundry list of other necessary items). We've made it easy: You can donate on-line.

People of Hampton Roads, and people of the greater community: We ask you to stand for diversity, tolerance, non-violence, and social justice. Donate your time; donate your treasure. And, no matter what, please join us tomorrow, Saturday the 25th, from 1pm to 5pm. We'll be here; we hope you are, too.

Tomorrow belongs to us... all of us

And I'm not using that in the manner in which some of my brown-shirted friends might. Tomorow's events will show good and evil, good ideas and bad ideas, love and hate.

We believe in diversity... and tomorrow belongs to all of us.

From an opinion piece in the Daily Press:

The rally that America's Nazi Party will hold at Yorktown on Saturday may be the best strategy to undermine, not strengthen, the group, to build opposition to it, not support.

Because the best way to kill bad ideas is to bring them out in the open. Repugnant ideas flourish in the dank darkness of ignorance and denial. But in the bright light of public exposure, they wither.

That would be the case with this white supremacist, neo-Nazi group. The doctrine it spews, based on racial superiority and allegiance to Adolf Hitler, is so putrid, so hate-filled, that most Americans - indeed any people with a reasonable measure of intelligence and humanity - find it offensive and alarming.

So bring it out in the open, and let people see it for what it is, and it earns opponents, not friends. That's exactly what this rally will do.

Shut those ideas away, where people can't see what the group is about, and opponents won't step forward, in action, speech or resolve.

There is another reason why getting these ideas into the light is a good thing. Allowing the rally affirms our devotion to free speech, the keystone of the Bill of Rights and our system of government, a feature of civic governance that reflects our founders' assumption of the natural intelligence of humankind. It puts on display, in a symbolic location, a reminder that this nation was birthed in a commitment to protecting the liberty of citizens, even those with opinions that deeply offend the majority.

So the rally will put the ideas of these neo-Nazis on display, and they will show badly. It will put the ideas of the American way on display, and they will show well. They prevailed once before at Yorktown, and they will prevail again on Saturday.

When they are brought out in the light, even with microphones, small men can only cast very small shadows.

In the mean time, Phil and I and a host of other volunteers are taking care of last minute details. If anyone wants to volunteer tomorrow, please get in touch with us today.

We are very excited about tomorrow's events; it's going to be a great time with excellent music and poetry and brief speeches. See you tomrrow at the Yorktown Battlefield.

These are interesting times: about 2 emails received today

I've received another couple of emails. One from a member of the military who said he'd been given a direct order and wasn't allowed to attend our peaceful event which is fundamental to our Constitution. He wrote,

This is something I can not protest or even be near. The reason is I am in the military and it is a conflict to want Americans fight for. Actually I was given a direct order that no one in the military is to be in the vicinity of the rally held by the neo-nazi party. Although you should realize that the more one gives them notice is publicity for them and that helps boost their ego.

I don't want to say he doesn't get it, but, he doesn't get it. We're not in the vicinity of the neo-Nazis rally; we're at the other end of the Park. It's big park. Can he not assert his Constitutional rights of assembly and free speech, so long as he's not in uniform, doesn't assert to represent the military, and doesn't espouse hatred? Perhaps we boost their egos by acknowledging their presence, but that is the least of my concerns. As an editorial in today's Virginian Pilot noted, Evil flourishes only when good people do nothing. Do nothing, friends, and see what happens. But I don't plan on doing nothing, because I know what will happen. Evil will flourish.

Of course, I'm wondering how any military member can be against diversity, tolerance, and social justice.

And then, I received a note from the spouse of a mid-grade officer. She gets it.

My husband is an officer in the military. He was just transferred to the west coast; we have 2 kids, and we are staying on this coast for the 2 years of his assignment. Maybe more.

My husband is Samoan. He grew up in Samoa. His parents died when he was 17. He came to the states not knowing how to speak English or use a fork. He thought he could afford college. He tried, but realized that couldn't and enlisted in the military - for the history of it (haha). I was working in Philadelphia when we met and married in 1989. We had two kids and ended up here in Hampton Roads. The reason I'm elaborating is that both he and I have had to deal with all sorts of bigotry. I'm blonde, blue eyes, whiter than white. He has brown eyes, black hair and has the dark Polynesian skin as do both of our kids. We get stared at because we are different colors.

Kids are innocent, but they have no problem asking 'what is your daddy' or 'what is your husband.' Sometimes, I just want to say that he's just a human – like you are. Our kids get categorized as being black, most of the time. Many of their friends are surprised when they see me and ask my kids 'is THAT your mother?" My husband has been called “the brother with the good hair" because is great in sports. He is very dark, but his hair is straight - because he is Polynesian.

I never thought I'd ever had to deal with such an ignorant sort of hatred. My husband has run into a KKK rally and had to run the other way. Because of his advancement in the military, it's automatically assumed and even commented on (even by very good 'friends') that he advanced because of his race - not his merit, which REALLY makes me sick, as he is a hard charger and always has been. He was raised in a poor family in Samoa and grew up with nothing. He's worked for his rank.

We moved to Hampton Roads when our daughter was not even a year old. I remember going to the laundromat with her in her baby carrier. Another old woman was in there and noticed that my daughter was 'dark'. She said 'what is your husband?" I said that he was Polynesian. Her reply was "I feel bad for your daughter because she's not going to be accepted by either race and will be confused when she gets older." Boy was I caught off guard and VERY angry, as I had never had to deal with such prejudice before. I was hurt. I cried and cried. I told her that I was glad that her generation was dying out because there was no room in this world for people with her kind of thinking. I've never forgotten that comment.

Another time, when my daughter was going to preschool, I noticed that another one of the moms was staring at me, then my daughter. Back and forth, back and forth. She finally got up the nerve to ask me what company I had adopted my kids through! I was flabbergasted. I told her that they were MINE and that I had the scars and gray hair to prove it. She was embarrassed, but I still think it was rude to assume they weren't mine because they looked a little different than I do...

ANYWAY, my husband is away right now. He may be home by the 25th. I'd LOVE to come to the rally. Our daughter will be in Australia and New Zealand at the time, but I think it would be a good learning experience for our son.

When I speak to my husband, I will run it buy him. If he'd like to volunteer, I'll let you know...

Thank you so much for your labor. It is appreciated and necessary.

Friends, I hope you get it. And I hope you join us in supporting diversity, tolerance, social justice, and non-violence. Stand and be counted. Show everyone that our community will not do nothing.

Some say it's refreshing

I recently sent an email to everyone in my various address books (I guess we'd call that spam, now, wouldn't we?) about the Rally. Here was a reply I received from an old high school buddy who is now a professor at the University of Arkansas.

Why Peter, after a hard day of hearing the locals rail in hatred against gays, after dealing with the continuous heartache of seeing science mis-used, warped and twisted to support partisal polical and religious agendas, and after just finishing the NY Times editorial reviewing the latest happenings with the Ohio pension scandal, it's refreshing to finally get that rare message that somebody gives a crap about something other than their wallet or themselves. Keep it up, and good luck.

The last time I saw Mike we ate a few crabs, drank a few beers, and talked about home brewing and the state of the world. Some things don't change.

Things are coming together: excitement reigns

Last night I attended a planning meeting of various groups who will be exercising their Constitutional rights at the Yorktown Battlefield on the 25th. The Center for Education Rights, sponsor of the Rally for Social Justice, is one of three groups who have been granted permits by the National Park Service to hold gatherings at the Park on that Saturday. From last night's planning meeting, it is clear that the Rally for Social Justice will be the place to be Saturday afternoon. Our music, our program, our infrastructure, and our core values (diversity, tolerance, non-violence, and social justice) make the Rally for Social Justice perhaps the only family-friendly, non-confrontational, peaceful plot of grass at the Park.

For those of you who are wondering, the Rally for Social Justice is at the north end of the Park, between the Vistors' Center and the Coast Guard's Training Center. The other two permit holders, the National Socialist Movement and the counter-protest led by Zion's Sake Congregation, will be at the southern end of the Park, well removed from the Rally for Social Justice.

Come on out and enjoy the music, poetry, and insightful words at the Rally for Social Justice. Bring a blanket or lawn chairs & a cooler with food & drink... we'll see you next weekend!