Baldacci, Rowe to speak at pro-diversity rally
By Associated Press, 1/8/2003 02:17
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) Gov. John Baldacci and Attorney General Steven Rowe are among the scheduled speakers at a pro-diversity rally Saturday, and Muhammad Ali is expected to send a letter of support to be read at the event, organizers say.
The Many & One Rally at the Bates College gym was organized in reaction to an anti-Somali rally that a neo-Nazi group plans to hold elsewhere in the city at the same time.
The World Church of the Creator scheduled its rally after Mayor Laurier Raymond wrote a letter last October to Somali elders asking that they stem the flow of Somali immigrants to Lewiston.
More than 1,100 Somalis have moved to Lewiston since February 2001, prompting Raymond to claim that the city was ''maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally.''
Baldacci is expected to speak briefly at the pro-diversity rally, taking time away from a previously scheduled event at the Blaine House, said Linda Sherwood, a member of the coalition organizing the event.
Former Lewiston mayor John Jenkins will be the master of ceremonies, and former mayor Kaileigh Tara also will speak. Raymond is on vacation in Florida, so he isn't expected to attend, Sherwood said.
The coalition tried to get Ali, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King III to speak, said Mark Schlotterbeck, leader of the Many & One Coalition. He said Jackson and King were unavailable, but Ali is expected to send a letter of support.
The main speaker at the anti-Somali rally, to be held at the Maine Army National Guard building, is expected to be Matthew Hale, leader of the World Church of the Creator, but it was unclear whether he will be able to attend.
Hale is scheduled to be in federal court Thursday to answer contempt-of-court charges related to a trademark battle over his group's name. The group has refused to comply with a judge's ruling to relinquish its Internet domain name and turn over all group documents to be destroyed.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/008/region/Baldacci_Rowe_to_speak_at_pro_:.shtml
The Neo-nazi's may not even show up.
I wonder if there would be the same ire should Farrakhan and his coterie come to town.
Hale may not show up, but some of his other creeps may. If they get more than a dozen WCOTC idiots to show up, I'll be surprised, but if there are more, it'll be members/supporters of the National Alliance or another neo-Nazi group of thugs.