Community rally comes off peacefully

(6/28) On Saturday, June 27, a planned rally was held in Thurmont to celebrate diversity and inclusion in the town. A flyer for the event called it a "Community Gathering" rather than a protest.

Comments on Facebook posts about the event were mixed; some expressed strong support for the event, while others stood in strong opposition to the gathering. Concerns about counter-protesters prompted the Town of Thurmont to send an email to businesses about the demonstration. Thurmont Police Chief Eyler wanted all the businesses to know there will be a demonstration in Thurmont. The email states, "at this point, we do not know how many will participate and how many will be involved in a counter-protest."

Ultimately, there appeared to be around 150 people that attended the demonstration; approximately two-thirds stood on the south side of the sidewalk with Black Lives Matter signs and Pride flags, while the other third stood on the other side with a mix of American, Confederate, and Trump 2020 flags.

Overall, despite tense conversations on Facebook leading up to the event, the event was peaceful; there was no police intervention and no arrests. The occasional profanity-laden shouts across the divide, instigated by a small subset of younger attendees, was quickly shut down by adults who remonstrated that the use of profanity was counter to their message and it should be stopped.

Except for the small vocal minority who seemed bent on insulting their opposite number, most attendees were more than happy to carry out friendly conversations with each other and wave at passing cars that honked in their favor.

Integrity was shown on both sides. When we were verbally shoved aside by one young adult when a question was asked to him, he later sought us out to apologizing, stating: "I’m sorry, I was caught up in the moment, and my rudeness was inappropriate, I apologize." He then went on to give a very civil and thoughtful explanation as to why he was there.

In one of the more light-hearted moments of the rally, protestors on the Northside of the street alerted a protestor holding a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign over her head that her sign was upside down. When they finally got her attention, she flipped the sign over and waved a thank-you to the other side, which was returned by a coarse of "you’re welcome." Everyone then returned to their chanting.

While organizers of the original gathering claimed no affiliation with the "Defund the Police" movement, one sign was present that included the words "Defund the Police" below, was a depiction of a police officer as a pig. When asked why she had chosen that image, the response was simply: "I wanted to offend." When asked if the Confederate flags across the street offended her, she said "yes" and that they should be taken down. When pressed, she was unable to explain why it was OK for her to offend, but not the other side.

Unseen by just about everyone, while the conversation above was taking place, a fellow protester became unsteady on her feet due to the heat. A Thurmont police officer was quickly at her side and helped her to the pavilion in the park where she could sit in the shade. The officer stayed by her side until water was brought, and she had recovered sufficiently to return to the rally line.

Not a single resident from Thurmont at the rally had a negative thing to say about the Thurmont Police Department, on the contrary, the overwhelming majority of the people on both sides had nothing but kind words and praise of support for Thurmont Police.

One of the organizers of the original gathering said: "I hope that this gathering will bring awareness that we need to be more inclusive towards others. We want peace for our friends and to show them that we are on their side."

On the other side, one counter-protester said: "it is easy to spread hate online, but hard to do when we actually have face-to-face conversations." This theme was seen throughout the day at the demonstration as individuals on both sides came together often and, through peaceful, respectful dialogue, realized they had more in common than they initially thought. "I think we agree on about 98% of issues," a group that included protesters on both sides said, "but for some reason, we focus way too much on the 2%."