More than 10 organizations in Princeton will observe Stand Against Racism day, a YWCA initiative set for Friday, April 30. The day aims to bring people together from all walks of life, across the country, to raise awareness that racism still exists.
Cranbury Station Gallery on Palmer Square, owned by Kathleen Maguire Morolda, will be an official site for the YWCA Stand Against Racism event from 9:30 to 10 a.m. She will be joined by members of the Princeton Merchants Association. Not in Our Town Princeton will distribute pins, saying “Princeton: let friendship and pride in diversity prevail.”
“It is my hope that the community/merchants/employees/friends will join us and show their support for this worthwhile event,” says Morolda. “Participants are invited to gather and join hands, where we will form a “human chain,” stretching throughout the town, sharing a vision to eliminate racism and celebrate the richness of the diversity in this community. Please contact me at 609.921.0434, if your business would like to join us.”
Also participating in Stand Against Racism day are two other Mercer County businesses: Mercadien Asset Management and Rue Insurance. For the event schedule, click here.
From 5 to 6 p.m. Not in Our Town Princeton and the Minority Education Committee (MEC) will hold a rally in front of Tiger Park – Nassau Street and Palmer Square. Everyone is invited to join the rally.
I am one of the Princeton United Methodist Church representatives for Not in Our Town, a grassroots interracial, interfaith social action group committed to speak truth about everyday racism and other forms of prejudice and discrimination. The Minority Education Committee advises the board of the Princeton Regional Schools.
To quote the YWCA: Racism can take many different forms. These can include, but are not limited to:
– Discrimination
– Personal attacks of any kind, including violence
– Written or verbal threats or insults
– Damage to property, including graffiti
To quote Not in Our Town Princeton: Let friendship and pride in diversity prevail.
Princeton Comment 
THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY! – Rev. H.R. WhiteExcerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives.