Rally’s message: choose love over hate

Speakers urge a ‘coming together’

By Taylor Jaffe | Manor Ink Mentor

Liberty, NY – The Committee for Equity and Justice, a subcommittee of Sullivan Allies Leading Together, or SALT, hosted a “Hate Has No Home in Sullivan County” gathering at Lapolt Park in Liberty. The Equity and Justice committee has held previous marches and vigils in Fallsburg and Monticello, and the Liberty action was a welcome sequel. Martin Colavito, a committee member and one of the event organizers, best described the day as all about coming together, overcoming hate and enjoying one another – which is exactly what everyone did.

The speakers at the event hoped to inspire, urging the community to come together to address the existence of hate and discrimination in Sullivan County. They also offered the hope that people can become more loving toward one another.

First to speak was Adrienne Jensen, the new executive director of Sullivan County’s Human Rights Commission. Jensen began by talking about the county as an organism, changing from time to time with whatever is happening. “Sullivan County is constructed of various individuals, and our county has created them. We have to take responsibility for them,” she said. Jensen spoke about hate as a collection of three elements – anger, fear and disgust. She said that while ignoring the problems that threaten the community can work for a period of time, unless the underlying elements are addressed, these solutions would only be temporary. To move the county toward love, she suggested that residents develop a healthy interest in their fellow citizens. “Implicit biases serve a purpose. They can protect us, but they can also keep us from people. Having a curiosity about others is really important,” she said.

Continuing the theme of curiosity, students from a new group, Stand Against Racism in Education, or SARE, spoke about the group’s efforts to work within Livingston Manor Central School and Roscoe Central School to help change the curriculum and overall educational culture. LMCS sophomore Sienna Dutcher shared her thoughts about her experience in a predominantly white and rural neighborhood, saying, “I have seen many hateful jokes and comments about the Black Lives Matter movement, and about black people as a whole. Unfortunately, I have seen complacency within these behaviors from a large portion of my peers.”

Dutcher spoke boldly, reminding the crowd that “complacency is complicity,” and urging county residents to hold themselves and their neighbors accountable. To advance its anti-racism work, SARE plans to start a virtual book club, host speakers, watch films and more. Students, teachers and community members can join the group by going to nysare.com.

Other speakers at the event, including Bud LeConey from the Kenoza Lake United Methodist Church, and Imam Samuel Encarnacion, a committee member, spoke about the power and boundlessness of love. LeConey read from the First Epistle of John, reminding the crowd that God loves everyone, that God is love and that perfect love drives out fear. Encarnacion built on this theme, saying, “If you believe in a creator, you should believe in equity and justice for everyone that has been created.”

The event was a beautiful gathering of community members, including three officers from the Liberty Police Department. Police Chief Steve D’Agata was impressed by the gathering. “Those five words – ‘hate has no home here’ – are the simplest way to say everything. We police officers are also the community, so it’s great to be here and be a part of this gathering.”

“The most important part of any meeting are the 20 minutes before and the 20 minutes after – go meet your neighbors!” organizer Martin Colavito urged in closing. The message of the afternoon was clear. To live without hate in Sullivan County, residents need to be curious about each other – they need to meet their neighbors, get to know them and enjoy creating community together.