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Blanding Watson smiled as he looked out at all of the faces, perspiring just a bit and looking back at him, in Binns Park on Saturday.
He saw people of differing races, some standing and some in wheelchairs, holding signs in English and Spanish.
"For those of us who believe in heaven," the second vice president of the Lancaster branch of the NAACP said, "this is what it will look like" ... a place with different kinds of people.
That picture of diversity, and equal access for everyone, is threatened here on earth — or at least in the corner of it called Lancaster County, Watson and others said Saturday.
Some 100 people attended a rally in Binns Park in downtown Lancaster, calling for county officials to find a way to keep afloat the county's Human Relations Commission, which is in danger of being disbanded.
They heard Watson and other speakers urge county leaders to maintain an agency that helps to "carry the torch of fairness," as one said.
The Lancaster NAACP organized Saturday morning's hour-long "unity rally" and is planning a similar event at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the hope of preserving the HRC.
Thursday's rally will precede a 7 p.m. Lancaster County Commissioners meeting regarding the HRC. The meeting will be held in the county administration building, 150 N. Queen St., which is next to Binns Park.
Organizers of Saturday's rally conceded that the high heat and humidity probably cut their turnout.
But they were still encouraged by the number of people on hand, and plan "to keep up the heat ... on the county commissioners!" said one speaker, Lancaster City Councilman Jose Urdaneta.
To get out of the scorching sun, organizers moved the rally to a spot under the park's stage canopy, yielding the park's splashing fountains to some children and their moms.
"We are here this morning to say loud and clear ... we're not going down the path that creates divisions among Americans," said Cobbie Burns, president of the Lancaster NAACP.
Without the county HRC to hear cases of discrimination at the local level, "people will feel like they have no choice, have no voice," he said.
It was revealed a month ago that the three-member board of county commissioners will look at abolishing the HRC, which has been investigating complaints of racial, employment and housing discrimination here since 1964, as a cost-cutting measure.
County residents could receive the same services from the state Human Relations Commission, supporters of cutting the local HRC have said, and closing it would save almost $470,000 annually out of a current county budget of $150 million.
Two county commissioners, Republicans Scott Martin and Dennis Stuckey, are leaning toward disbanding the commission, while the third commissioner, Democratic Craig Lehman, opposes the move.
But while eliminating the commission would save money, what's the cost, the Rev. Randy Riggs said Saturday, to a single mother facing discrimination, who can't afford the time off work to go to Harrisburg for a case if the Lancaster agency is disbanded?
"What would be that cost to us ... if only those who can afford to hire a lawyer" would get fair treatment in discrimination cases, wondered Riggs, pastor of Lancaster's First Presbyterian Church and also president of the Downtown Ministerium.
"When the rights of one person are violated, the rights of
all are violated," he said.
Saturday's protesters carried signs reading "Save OUR HRC," "HRC IS A FAMILY VALUE," and "LANCASTER SUPPORTS CIVIL RIGHTS."
The local HRC "certainly helps fight discrimination, and tries to make improvements in our community in any areas where people might be discriminated against or not be treated fairly," said county HRC member Karen Gerdes as she watched the midday rally.
But the commission also "is a voice of reason ... [members] listen to both sides of any complaint, so they're also able to weed out those complaints that don't have merit, where someone is trying to work the system, so to speak."
U.S. House candidate Lois Herr, one of the 11 speakers Saturday, encouraged everyone to wave their signs and "create a little breeze for each other."
Herr, a Democrat who's challenging incumbent Republican Joe Pitts this fall, called the local HRC "an asset, not a liability. It tells the world that Lancaster County is a place that values
all people.
"We cannot turn back the clock on civil rights," she added.
Without the county HRC, "we'll become the Hazleton of civil rights," she said, referring to the northeastern Pennsylvania city in the news a few years ago for what some felt were anti-immigrant ordinances.
The county HRC, according to its Web page, "receives and processes complaints of alleged discrimination, including ... in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and lending."
It also aims to "actively promote amicable and cooperative relations among the various cultural, educational, racial, ethnic, economic, social and religious groups" of the county.
Saturday's audience included Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, on hand just three weeks after his motorcycle accident, who did not speak but drew applause from the crowd.
Having the county commission helps fair-minded people "build the kind of community we want — one that honors others, and respects others," said the Rev. Scott Fischer, executive director of the county Council of Churches.
"Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do," he said, especially when it's hardest.
The minister then quoted the Bible's Book of Proverbs, which urges people to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves."
doconnor@lnpnews.com
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