Local vigil held against racism

At the gathering, McDonell quoted Nelson Mandela, who wrote, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

When McDonell first posted her thoughts Saturday morning, she was reacting to a march led Friday night by torch-bearing white nationalists on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Saturday afternoon, Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville by an alleged white supremacist, who drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters at what was billed as a “Unite the Right” rally.

Some 19 others were injured in the crash.

McDonell wrote on her Facebook page in reaction to the torch-wielding marchers, “If anyone in The Dalles or the greater Gorge area is interested in being part of a peaceful protest decrying this sickening behavior, please text me or message me via Facebook. I don't know what it will look like yet, it might just be me with a sign, but I have to do something. Love and peace for all, Mimi.”

McDonell, who said she was speaking as an individual and not in her professional capacity, and several others spoke at the 20-minute event. It concluded with the crowd standing and holding hands in a moment of silence. Finally, a woman started singing, the Pete Seeger civil rights song of resolve, “We shall not be moved.”

McDonell said after the vigil, “I felt just overwhelmed with sadness and just absolutely had to speak out against this. To speak out against the hatred that people are demonstrating, not just in Charlottesville. I think the only way to move forward is for people to connect with one another and to let our children know that we will not accept this, that this is not the world that we should be in. We cannot let this continue without a fight.”

On her post announcing the event, she called it a “gathering to promote compassion, tolerance and togetherness for ALL.”

After the vigil, McDonell said she didn’t want people to think that things like the white nationalist rally were normal. Her daughter, Avery, who was also at the vigil, said, “I did have to ask her, ‘Is this normal, for your generation?’”

Rose Strange spoke at the vigil and said, “No one deserves to feel afraid they’re going to get run over for using their voices. Heather Heyer, she died yesterday fighting for all our freedoms. We need to say her name.”

She led the audience in speaking Heyer’s name several times. One person shouted, “We love you Heather!”

Eric Gross then spoke, saying his grandfather fought in World War II and his grandmother escaped from a Nazi internment camp in 1944. Gross said of white nationalists, “They would love to see us intimidated into silence. That’s how they win.”

Maria Pena then spoke, saying she was from an immigrant family. “Why don’t we show how we feel? Well, because we’re intimidated.”

She said that the crowd assembled to protest the events in Charlottesville “Means a lot to me.”

Darcy Long-Curtiss, a member of The Dalles City Council, also spoke, saying that when she told a friend who lives across the country that she was going to the gathering, the friend cautioned her to “be safe.”

She said she realized then she hadn’t even considered her safety, something she credited to being white and living in a community where people do not resort to violence against people who disagree with them.

She said she was proud that so many community members came together to make it clear “we are united against racism and bigotry.”