Once again, a good sized group of us showed up at the Benton County Courthouse for another hearing concerning the racist twerp Andrew Oswalt. As usual, Dale and I were on hand in the entryway, distributing stickers and directing people to the correct courtroom before the hearing began.
As we were standing there, a courthouse employee passed by us and said, "Not as a courthouse employee, but as a citizen, thank you for being here and doing what you're doing." It was great to receive that kind of supportive feedback - after all, that's the kind of feedback we're all trying to give to the DA for having filed these charges, and to the judge, to assure he understands the community takes these kinds of racist threats seriously.
And do you know what else happened in the exact same seconds that this employee was talking to us? That's when Andrew Oswalt himself quickly slipped by us and scurried swiftly up the stairs. Yes, the big, tough racist waited until we were distracted to slip by us so he wouldn't have to "risk" making eye contact with us. Of course, racists are inherently cowards, and the crimes he committed were also done in a cowardly fashion, so I guess he was just staying true to form.
Anyway, after the hearing a group of those attending reconvened at a nearby coffee shop, and we had a great meet-and-greet and discussion for over an hour. There are a lot of good ideas and connections that came out of that discussion, with the one question that speaks most to me being: Where are our local elected leaders on this? It's true that most of them haven't spoken out on Oswalt's crimes, or the racist activity that it represents, so, with that in mind, I plan on going to our next City Council meeting and inviting them to use their free speech rights to tell the community where they stand on racist activity and idiocy.
A logical follow-up question for those who state their opposition to such things would be: What do you intend to do to counter it?
As we were standing there, a courthouse employee passed by us and said, "Not as a courthouse employee, but as a citizen, thank you for being here and doing what you're doing." It was great to receive that kind of supportive feedback - after all, that's the kind of feedback we're all trying to give to the DA for having filed these charges, and to the judge, to assure he understands the community takes these kinds of racist threats seriously.
And do you know what else happened in the exact same seconds that this employee was talking to us? That's when Andrew Oswalt himself quickly slipped by us and scurried swiftly up the stairs. Yes, the big, tough racist waited until we were distracted to slip by us so he wouldn't have to "risk" making eye contact with us. Of course, racists are inherently cowards, and the crimes he committed were also done in a cowardly fashion, so I guess he was just staying true to form.
Anyway, after the hearing a group of those attending reconvened at a nearby coffee shop, and we had a great meet-and-greet and discussion for over an hour. There are a lot of good ideas and connections that came out of that discussion, with the one question that speaks most to me being: Where are our local elected leaders on this? It's true that most of them haven't spoken out on Oswalt's crimes, or the racist activity that it represents, so, with that in mind, I plan on going to our next City Council meeting and inviting them to use their free speech rights to tell the community where they stand on racist activity and idiocy.
A logical follow-up question for those who state their opposition to such things would be: What do you intend to do to counter it?
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