Mayor Setti Warren and U.S. Rep Joe Kennedy Hold Charlottesville Vigil

NEWTON— Mayor Setti Warren and U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III hosted a vigil at Newton City Hall this morning, asking the community to recommit against racism and bigotry. The gathering comes in response to the protests in Charlottesville, VA, where white nationalists decried the removal of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's statue. A white supremacist killed a counterprotester by hitting her with a car and injuring several others.

Kennedy described the far-right protesters in Charlottesville, "So comfortable are they that this time they did not bother with a hood. By the end of the day, images of bodies thrown above a car driven by a white supremacist, seared into our collective conscience."

Mayor Warren described telling his children about the events of the weekend, "On Monday morning I spoke to my six-year-old and my nine-year-old about what had happened in Charlottesville. The home-grown terrorism act that killed and injured people. I had to explain to them what white nationalism was, why there were people in the us that hated them and wanted to do them harm because of their color."

Both Kennedy and Warren vehemently opposed President Trump's response to the crisis, including his initial press conference, and off-the cuff remarks on Tuesday during an infrastructure event.

"President Trump failed in this moment to speak out and push back and call this for what it is; poisonous, wrong, bigoted hatred," Warren told the crowd. "This is not a world I know Joe, me or any of you want to leave our children or our grandchildren."

Warren and Kennedy spoke alongside faith leaders, including Rabbi Allison Berry of Temple Shalom. All leaders urged the community to join together in fighting "bigotry, racism, fascism, and anti-semitism," as Warren said, citing the work of their grandfathers during World War II and the Civil Rights era as leaders against Nazis and racial oppressors.

“Too many have sacrificed too much to push our country too far for there to be any other choice, for there to be any other side,” Kennedy urged.