Academic Leaders Raise Voices Vs. Hatred and Racism in Charlottesville

OSM! Forum

 

 

New York City – Personality and social psychologist and writer Dee Burton, Ph.D., pens, “You really have to ask yourself—where does it stop?” This, of course, was US President Trump complaining about the removal of confederate statues in Charlottesville, but unintentionally capturing the words on the minds of everyone wondering how and when his presidency will stop—and how much more damage he’ll inflict before then.

Looking from across the ocean, Burton said that the onslaught of appalling events of the Trump presidency is “terrifying but not surprising.”

 

Burton wrote “21 Days to Stop Smoking” and has authored or co-authored over forty peer-reviewed articles, research reports, monographs, and five books. She chairs the Department of Community Health Sciences at the State University of New York at Downstate

 

Burton further opined to OSM! online magazine, “To some, Trump is just the archetypal American barbarian.  It is, instead, the failure of the US government to end the barbarian’s tyranny that shocks the world. What stuns is the apparent spiritual sloth.  Yes, impeach Trump yesterday.”

For Joie T. Calub, Ph.D., an education administrator at the NYC Department of Education, what happened in Charlottesville was senseless. “We all need to stand up against hatred, bigotry, and violence. We must all take a proactive stance to advocate for peace,” she said.

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Hugh Spurgin, president of the Unification Theological Seminary, an interfaith seminary in New York said that the UTS community calls for racial and religious tolerance in the wake of another outbreak of hatred and violence in Charlottesville.

“We repudiate racism, white supremacy and all hate groups. Our hope is that America will always seek love, unity and the higher ground. Let us pray for healing rather than condemnation, peaceful activity rather than violence, and love for all people rather than racial and religious conflict,” said Dr. Spurgin in a statement published by the UTS website www.uts.edu.

(Featured photo is the torch-bearing Alt-right rallyists in Charlottesville from Google.com)