On Sunday, Aug. 27, Juneauites have been asked to show solidarity for the people of Charlottesville, Virginia, at a rally at Marine Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prime purpose is to affirm the guiding principals of this country which have evolved to include everybody,\u201d organizer Rich Moniak said during a visit to the Empire building on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Writers Ernestine Hayes and Ishmael Hope and former Mayor Bruce Bothelo and Mayor Ken Koelsch will speak at the rally, which takes place from 2-3:30 p.m. Attendees are also invited to speak at the open-mic style rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want a way to express themselves and be able to say, \u2018this is where I stand, this is where we stand,\u2019\u201d Bothelo said. \u201cSo I think a lot of this is, again, an opportunity for people to be able to say to themselves that I stood up, we stood up, and we stood up together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juneau People for Peace and Justice organized the rally. Moniak, Botelho and KJ Metcalf stopped by the Empire on Wednesday to talk about their message. They lament being a little late with their response \u2014 the Charlottesville \u201cUnite the Right\u201d rally took place two weeks ago \u2014 but the violence from white supremacists at the rally demanded a local response, however belated.<\/p>\n
Botelho said the group may be perceived as \u201cpeaceniks\u201d by some, but he hopes to see those from across the political spectrum attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery corner of the community should feel welcome and that they have ownership for this as well,\u201d Botelho said.<\/p>\n
The organizers said the event has four goals: To reaffirm our commitment to America\u2019s guiding principle \u2014 that all people, regardless of race or religion, are created equal; to honor the sacrifice of all those who have worked to eradicate hate, violence and the systems reinforcing both; to reflect on our inner struggles with discrimination and biases; and to stand strong against the anti-Semitism and racial hatred that brought harm to Charlottesville and threatens the health of our fragile democracy.<\/p>\n
U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan recently responded to the widely-derided response to the Charlottesville from President Donald Trump. Trump had blamed \u201cmany sides\u201d for the violence in Charlottesville, which left one counterprotester dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir hateful ideology, which seeks to undermine the dignity of people based on their race, is antithetical to the American ideals and values,\u201d Sullivan wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery one of us must stand against hatred, bigotry and violence, in both our words and actions,\u201d Murkowski wrote. \u201cWe all have a responsibility to unite and heal our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2022 Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com or 523-2228.<\/b><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday, Aug. 27, Juneauites have been asked to show solidarity for the people of Charlottesville, Virginia, at a rally at Marine Park. \u201cThe prime purpose is to affirm the guiding principals of this country which have evolved to include everybody,\u201d organizer Rich Moniak said during a visit to the Empire building on Wednesday. Writers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4433"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}