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Rallies draw diverse crowd, call for an end to hate
Saturday, May 06, 2000 By Diana Nelson Jones, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
About 300 people turned out in Market Square, Downtown, yesterday afternoon for a rally its organizers titled "Not in Our Town," a response to two recent mass slayings in the Pittsburgh area.
The 90-minute lineup of speakers and music called for a search of our hearts and appealed to mental health professionals, to the Legislature for passage of gun control and hate-crime legislation, and to neighborhoods.
"When I moved here from New York City, people told me, 'In Pittsburgh, it all happens in the neighborhoods,' " said Lori Rizzo of the Thomas Merton Center. "Well, think about your neighborhood. Think about where the welcome mat would not be down. We're going to target all those places and end hate, one neighborhood at a time."
In Wilkinsburg on March 1, three people were killed and two were wounded in a rash of shootings that authorities have called hate crimes. The black suspect, Ronald Taylor, targeted five white men. On April 28, five people died in shootings that left a sixth victim in critical condition. The victims were Chinese, Jewish, Vietnamese, Indian and black. The white suspect, Richard Baumhammers, of Mt. Lebanon, promoted a campaign against non-European immigration to the United States.
The faces in yesterday's crowd looked like the world in a bowl -- the different shapes of many types of Asians, the variety of colors of black America, the scarf-covered women of the Middle East and white people who locked arms with their friends of color. All tilted their faces upward, as if to hear better, though the voices from the stage shrieked through the microphone.
Karate school to give plaque to victim's family
Four rows of speakers included Mayor Murphy, Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey, NAACP President Tim Stevens, representatives from the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh and from the Indian, Vietnamese and Chinese communities.
Roddey lamented "our priorities" that are so out of order that the fastest-growing part of the state budget is in the building of prisons. "We have to stop and wonder about what's been happening and accept a piece of the blame ourselves," he said. "Where have we been before this? We have allowed where society has gone."
Shenu Gupta, a 24-year-old law student at the University of Pittsburgh, who had been dancing to the band Cross Currents before the speeches began, raised a fist in the air when she told the crowd, "I was born in Oakland, Magee Hospital. But I'm often asked, 'Where are you from?' I say 'I'm from Pittsburgh.'
" 'No, but where are you from?' " she said, to chuckles from the crowd.
"You'd be amazed how long this conversation can go on. Eventually, I say, 'My parents are from India.' And I get, 'Oh, so that's where you're from.' "
She encouraged ethnic groups that stick together to spread out and learn about other groups. "Take it to the next step. Teach other people who you are."
One speaker, Janet Hellner-Burris, pastor of the Christian Church of Wilkinsburg, moved her head in a sweep to indicate the size of the crowd. "Look at all the beautiful children out there," she said, raising her arms. "Lift your children up. They're the reasons we're here."
Later in the evening, more than 500 people gathered at Ya Fei Chinese Cuisine in Robinson to light candles in memory of the victims of the shootings. The restaurant was where Ji-Ye "Jerry" Sun and Thao "Tony" Pham were shot to death a week earlier.
As the candles burned, the assembled people stood in the parking lot first for a moment of silence and then to listen to the lonely tone of the pan flute on which Bao Hui Chen played "Amazing Grace."
Speaker after speaker denounced the violence and called for racial harmony.
Laura Efurd, a deputy assistant to President Clinton, read aloud a letter from the president.
"Once again, our country has been shaken by an act of hatred and violence. And once again, people of good will have shown the power of the human spirit to rise above such shameful acts and choose the path of unity, healing and reconciliation," Efurd said.
People came from all over the area, some who knew the victims and some who didn't. But all who came said they needed to stand against the racial hatred.
Karen Yee, the owner of Ya Fei, said the vigil followed a private Buddhist ceremony at the restaurant to mark the seventh day after a death "that helps the spirit go on its way."
As members of the crowd lit candles and pinned white memorial ribbons to their clothing, the smell of incense from that ceremony wafted in the air.
Wei Wang, 45, of Shadyside, was among those standing in the parking lot with her husband Qiang, 47. She said they never met the men who were killed.
"I can't believe this happened in Pittsburgh," Wei Wang said.
Speakers at the vigil represented Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Jewish and black communities. Officials there included Roddey; U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.; U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Swissvale; and Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht.
Staff writer Ann Belser contributed to this report.
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