On a hot and rainy day in Washington DC, on Sunday, June 13, 2010, volunteers of diverse religions, races, ethnic backgrounds, genders, and age groups came together to remember the June 2009 attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and to remember the tragic death of museum guard Stephen Tyrone Johns a year ago on June 10, 2009.

The public remembrance at Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza was organized by Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), a human rights volunteer group that pulls together coalitions of volunteers from among the public for activism and public awareness on human rights issues.   Among R.E.A.L.’s core issues are religious freedom/pluralism and racial equality, which R.E.A.L. saw the June 10, 2009 attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as defying such freedoms, urging “Never Again” to hate.

Speakers from among the public included R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm, Elisa Tetreault, Mrs. N. Washington, and Damanga Executive Director Mohamed Yahya.  Other volunteers came to help organize, record, and promote the event among the public.  Attendees included an employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum who attended as a private individual, and who expressed his appreciation for the volunteers’ public remembrance.  Media attendees included FOX 5 News and a contributor to the Washington Jewish Week.

The event began with a brief rain shower, but the location of the event on the east side of Freedom Plaza provided some natural protection by nearby trees, and the shower quickly passed.  With a breeze that periodically gusted, volunteers held signs reading “We Remember June 10 Attack on U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,” “We Remember Stephen Johns,” “Together for Love and Tolerance,” and “Choose Love, Not Hate, Love Wins.”

FOX 5 News Video

R.E.A.L. YouTube Video of Excerpts of Public Remembrance

Jeffrey Imm spoke of the need to have a public remembrance on the June 10 attack and the murder of Stephen Tyrone Johns, in addition to the museum’s private remembrance on the morning of June 10.  He stated that the volunteers had gathered to share the grief of Mr. Johns’ family and also to stand united to defy hate and to urge “our fellow human beings to Choose Love, Not Hate.”  He also stated that he recognized that some had told him that they were afraid to come to a public remembrance, but we should not let fear terrorize us from standing up for equality, liberty, dignity, and love for our fellow human beings.

He stated that “Some believe that this attack was someone else’s problem.  They believe that the attacker James Von Brunn’s white supremacist hate is only a problem for non-whites, and has nothing to do with the Jewish public.  Some believe that his Holocaust Denial is only a problem for those remember the Holocaust, and this is only a problem for the Jewish world. But the fact is that terrorist attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was attack based on hate.  No one could possibly doubt that an attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was a attack on all Jews – not just one type of Jew, American Jews, or Jews in Washington DC – but an attack on all Jewish people everywhere around the world.   Moreover, the attacker’s Holocaust Denial is an attack against the terrible truth of the Holocaust itself. No one could possibly doubt that this attack by a white supremacist also was hatred against black Americans.”

“But the attack was not just against Jews and black, not just in Washington DC, and not just Americans.  The attack was one motivated by hate itself.  The terrorist Von Brunn himself documented his philosophy in writing to a Nazi sympathizer in Germany, stating that hate was ‘natural, normal and necessary,’ and that ‘compassionate nations’ would ‘die.’  Such an attack of hate was one that speaks to the violence against all people that have compassion, all people that defy genocide, all people that seek justice, and yes all people that seek to love their fellow human beings. The cancer of hate leads to that much destruction.  We stand here today united, not just to remember that attack on June 10, 2009, but also to reject that hate that motivated it.  We stand here today to remember the awful consequences of allowing hate to go unchallenged.  We stand here today to say ‘Never Again’ to such hate, not just in others, but also in ourselves. But in our challenge to hate, in our unwillingness to be afraid, we don’t offer an upraised fist, but we offer an outstretched hand. We urge those who hate to drop the burden of hate from their hearts.  We urge them to Choose Love, Not Hate.  Love Wins.”

Elisa Tetreault that all “men and women are equal before the law, without discrimination because of sex, blood, language, social origin, or religion.  Equality is not something that you should practice because it is the law, but something you should practice because it is right.”  She urged others “to take a look at who we are, take a look at who we are standing next to.  It can be men, women, gay, straight, black, white, Latino, Asian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim.  Each of us are fighting for justice in different ways.”

She stated that: “On June 10, 2009, Stephen Tyrone Johns was shot to death by a white supremacist and Holocaust Denier.  It is tragic when anyone loses their life, especially at the hands of hate.  It is hard to believe that the actions of one person can cause so much hurt.  The truth is that all it takes is one person.  What I have learned is that we all make a difference.  A wise man once said ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’  This is what we are here for.  This is what we are fighting for.  It does not matter your skin color or the religion you practice or your sexual orientation, we are all equal, we all bleed the same color. I stand here before you to say that one person can make change.  Act as if what you do makes a difference, because it does.  Remember to Choose Love, Not Hate.”

Damanga Executive Director Mohamed Yahya has great experience in fighting against hate in the ongoing genocide in Sudan’s Darfur.  Mr. Yahya spoke of his sympathy and grief for Stephen Tyrone Johns in his efforts to protect the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as a real hero and a great, great man.  He spoke of how America is viewed around the world as a nation that prizes freedom, equality, liberty, and compassion toward others – freedoms and dignity that is lost in many other parts of the world, including his war-torn home of Darfur and Sudan. Mohamed Yahya has been recognized as a leading fighter against genocide by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Mrs. Washington spoke of the importance of remembering the attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was not a random act of violence, but was a targeted attempt to attack and terrorize Jewish Americans and to deny the reality of the Holocaust itself.  Mrs. Washington also pointed to the importance of where this public remembrance was being held – Freedom Plaza, and the important symbolic nature of this location.  The Freedom Plaza in Washington DC is named in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., who worked on his “I Have a Dream” speech in the nearby Willard Hotel. In 1988, a time capsule containing a Bible, a robe, and other relics of King’s was planted at the site.

Mrs. Washington urged the public to stop and take a moment to reflect on such critical issues for our freedom as the need to stand defiant against hate and the need to understand that an attack on the human rights of one of us represented an attack on such rights for all of us.  Mrs. Washington pointed to the need to continue to realize this dream of equality and liberty, dignity, respect, and love for all of our fellow Americans and fellow human beings.

The volunteers stood together at the Freedom Plaza area to urge others to Choose Love, Not Hate.

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) applauds the efforts by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to continue to record and share the concerns and sympathies of the public regarding this terrorist attack, and urges the public to also publicly pledge their support against hate.  R.E.A.L. also urges all to make a gift to the USHMM Stephen Tyrone Johns Summer Youth Leadership Program Endowment Fund.