{"id":83946,"date":"2021-03-29T07:15:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T11:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=83946"},"modified":"2021-03-30T07:11:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T11:11:32","slug":"vigil-held-for-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigil held for equality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Residents, local political leaders, local pastors, and anti-racism advocates joined together Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil at the Owego courthouse to honor the eight victims, most of whom were Asian, slain recently in a mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, and to decry the hatred that led to the attack. Even while denouncing the violence and hatred against Asian Americans, it was still shocking for some in attendance to realize that hatred is much closer to home than they previously realized.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I should stand up and say something instead of being a quiet minority that doesn\u2019t stand up for ourselves,\u201d said Jen Tu, who was in attendance at Sunday\u2019s vigil.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Tu added, \u201cI have been living in this area quite a long time and I always thought it was a nice place to live and people were friendly. But ever since COVID I walk around town a lot, and a few times I have had people honking at me and pointing at me and yelling \u2018COVID\u2019. So I am really sad about this because everyone should be treated equally and treated with dignity.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jo Ellen Rose, who is Tu\u2019s neighbor, gasped when Tu relayed her story, and later apologized for the treatment she was receiving.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to say that this does not represent what the majority of us want for this nation,\u201d said Rose.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While it is not believed that the mass shooting in Georgia was related to anti-COVID sentiment, there has been a noted statistical increase in hate crimes committed against Asian Americans, and as America grapples with the COVID pandemic. While COVID was introduced to America through England, the virus itself originated in Wuhan, China, leading many, including former President Donald Trump, to try to label COVID the Wuhan or China virus.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be a counter narrative to the Trump Administration calling this virus the Chinese virus, I want to show that I don\u2019t believe any of that,\u201d said Meredith Cohn Bocek.<\/p>\n<p>Organized by Irene Raia, from Owego for Equality, she stated that she was spurred to organize the vigil not just by fellow group members, but also by local pastors and political leaders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am grateful for the community members who showed up and spoke out,\u201d said Raia, adding, \u201cI am especially grateful we could present a community united against racism and violence. The presence of a bipartisan, multigenerational coalition that also included religious leaders as well as secular activists was very powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About 45 people attended, including Village of Owego Mayor Mike Baratta. Some in attendance even brought young family members to not only show as much local support as possible, but to pass on the desire to do the right thing to the next generation.&nbsp;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Residents, local political leaders, local pastors, and anti-racism advocates joined together Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil at the Owego courthouse to honor the eight&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":83947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vigil held for equality - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vigil held for equality - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Residents, local political leaders, local pastors, and anti-racism advocates joined together Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil at the Owego courthouse to honor the eight...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/The-Owego-Pennysaver-49179420591\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-29T11:15:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-30T11:11:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2021\/03\/Vigil.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"744\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/\",\"name\":\"Vigil held for equality - Owego Pennysaver Press\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2021\/03\/Vigil.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-29T11:15:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-30T11:11:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2021\/03\/29\/vigil-held-for-equality\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2021\/03\/Vigil.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2021\/03\/Vigil.jpg\",\"width\":744,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"\u201cIt is important to show the next generation that it is important to stand up for what is right,\u201d said Fran Tirinato at the vigil held Sunday night to honor the eight victims of the recent mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia. The vigil took place at the courthouse square in Owego. 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