To the Editor:

On Saturday morning, May 18, there was a march through town from the Wilton Train Station to Our Lady of Fatima Parish led by resident Michael Gordon with townspeople of all ages, including students, some of whom had participated earlier in the week in their own march at Wilton High School. There followed speeches at the Parish by town government officials, faith community leaders, a distinguished guest speaker, and Michael Gordon himself.

It was a powerful experience, both in the marching and in the listening to those eloquent speakers. I quote below excerpts from what they said, but without attribution because I am not a fast taker of dictation and I may not have gotten their quotes exactly right, though I strongly believe that I’ve captured their essence. Furthermore, those who spoke did so without regard to attribution or credit for what they said but to convey a powerful message of the importance of speaking out against hate and racism. They emphasized the need for all of us to be upstanders, not bystanders, and the need also for those who are victims of hate speech or action to speak up forthrightly about it, not remain silent.

Here is a brief encapsulation of those remarks, not necessarily in the order given and, as I mentioned, not as quotations and hence not for attribution to any specific speaker:

  • We need to be able to serve notice on those who foment racism and hate and not stand idly by. We need to be of service to others, showing them that we are going to be upstanders in the best and most active sense of the word.
  • Our community is blessed with wealth and academic accomplishment, but sadly it is presently short in some key aspects of moral conduct. We too often have a “10-day memory”: we react to hard things as they happen, but then revert to the status quo.
  • We need to ask ourselves, “What have we done when we’ve seen people being mistreated?” We need to be not just allies who are in sympathy with those victimized but “accomplices” acting in partnership with those who are victimized to help to facilitate progress forward and always to speak up when we see acts of hate.
  • We need to find the good and appreciate each other more. The best response to hate is hope and love. Every act of kindness is a prayer. We need our fellow human beings to be respected and heard for who they are. We need to make a welcoming place for each other at the table with true inclusion. We need to be in real conversation, conversation that truly serves to advance understanding, conversation that can be hard but always is necessary.

Now concluding in my own words: The message of this experience was loud and clear — we as a community need to be proactive and take it as our own individual responsibility to be upstanders in very affirmative ways that reflect in our actions the moral strength of our community.

Steve Hudspeth