Mt. Pleasant , PA: Trump Country
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/us/politics/pennsylvania-halloween-parade-float-racist.html
Son Richard first alerted us to the racist politicization of the annual Halloween parade in his new home town of Mount Pleasant, PA. We have been to Mt. Pleasant. It is a town of about 4000 near Pittsburgh that, how do I put this, is long in the tooth and has seen better days. It is also the heart of Trump country.
My son took our grandchildren to the parade in Mount Pleasant on Wednesday only to see a golf cart bearing a likeness of Donald Trump with a machine gun on its back and a figure made to look like Vice President Harris being dragged behind her hands bound and leashed.
Following the occurrence, a host of city officials and others lambasted the display of racism which they insist has no place in Mount Pleasant. I am here to disagree. Not only is it representative of how some in Mount Pleasant think (or why else would it have been there), but I would guess that anywhere in America that had a parade the floats for which were not vetted, might have had a similar display.
America is a great country, but it has a deep, racist history dating back to the onset of slavery in 1619. The entire 1619 Project promoted by The New York Times five years ago, and lambasted by the right-wing, is predicated on the concept that racism has deep roots in this country. So do misogyny and antisemitism. The front page of The New York Times on November 1 reveals the debates that went on within the Harvard leadership about how to respond to October 7. How to respond? Are you kidding? That was an act of violent terrorism and had to be firmly condemned. Despite the facts it wasn’t buy Harvard’s leadership. That leadership was parsing words afraid of offending the left-wing, pro-Palestinian students and faculty. Why? Basically, anti-Zionism that bled into anti-Semitism.
I am not advocating for wokeism. DEI created more problems than it solved, but when outrageous displays of racism or anti-Semitism occur, they must be called out for what they are and those perpetrating these acts of hate need to be prosecuted. Free speech ends where incitement begins. “From the river to the sea” chanted by an anti-Semitic crowd is like shouting fire in a crowded theater.
I have not had the opportunity yet to ask my son how he explained the float to his sons. My guess is that this will be one of many explanations he has to make about discrimination in Mount Pleasant. But let’s not get big city arrogant. An incident like the racist float could occur anywhere vigilance is dropped and hate festers.
The protests by the collective leadership of Mount Pleasant is amusing. Someone has the responsibility to vet what is going to be in a parade that goes down a public street. What I really fear is that someone did and let the racist float go through anyway.
