Bucks County Residents Rally For Peace In Wake Of Charlottesville Violence
NEWTOWN, Pa. (CBS)--On a crowded street corner in Bucks County at least 100 voices sang out the verses of Peter Paul and Mary's, 'If I Had A Hammer'.
Their intentions were made clear with signs reading, "Love Thy Neighbor. No Exceptions" and "End White Supremacy" and it made an impression on at least one person passing by.
"I'm just so glad to see this," said Gina Carson.
Carson moved to the town of Newtown a year ago.
"There's not a lot of diversity here but this right here makes me feel really good about where I'm living at now," she said.
The Vigil for Charlotte was organized by Barbara Simmons, the executive director for The Peace Center in Langhorne.
"We need to be talking about it. How do we prevent this from happening in our community?" she asked.
Such questions were discussed as the group marches three blocks to their destination of the Newtown Friends Meeting House. There, participants were able to sit together and air thoughts of heartache and confusion over the loss of life in Charlottesville.
"We just couldn't stand still. We had to fight," said 93-year-old Renee Disabella.
With the help of a walker, Disabella was a proud participant of the vigil. On her shirt, she wore an orange pin with four numbers written on it. She explained that the pin distinguished her as a political prisoner when she and her mother were held in a concentration camp in 1941. Both were captured for their work in the French Underground, or French Resistance of Nazi control in World War II.
Disabella says that what she saw coming out of Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend, brought back painful memories.
"I was thinking, the same thing [is happening] that happened in Europe. It's just not fair. It's just not right.'