tagged w/ love each other or perish
-
The president of The Valley Swim Club on Friday strongly denied charges of racism after his club canceled the swimming privileges of a nearby day care center whose children are predominantly African-American.
"It was never our intention to offend anyone," said John Duesler. "This thing has been blown out of proportion."
Duesler said his club -- which he called "very diverse" -- invited camps in the Philadelphia area to use his facility because of the number of pools in the region closed due to budget cuts this summer. He said he underestimated the amount of children who would participate, and the club's capacity to take on the groups was not up to the task.
"It was a safety issue," he said.
The Creative Steps Day Care children -- who are in kindergarten through seventh grade -- went to The Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley on June 29 after the center's director, Alethea Wright, had contracted to use the club once a week.
During their first visit, some children said they heard club members asking why African-American children were there. One youngster told a Philadelphia television station a woman there said she feared the children "might do something" to her child.
Days later, the day care center's $1,950 check was returned without explanation, Wright said.
She was dismissive of Duesler's comments Friday.
"He knows what happened at the pool that day," Wright told CNN in a telephone interview. "I was embarrassed and humiliated."
She called it an "unfortunate situation," adding, "I know what happened; the members know what happened and a higher power knows what happened." Watch the club president say racism is not at play »
After news reports of the incident, the office of Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania) said Specter sent a letter to the club president asking him to reinstate the contract with Creative Steps, saying, "I think that you would agree that there is no place for racism in America today."
Duesler said he appreciates the senator's concern, but the club's board has yet to make a decision of how it will proceed.
"If we're going to revise our policies here, we need to make it so for all the camps," he said. "I just don't think we're prepared for that."
Duesler earlier in the week told two Philadelphia television stations the children had changed "the complexion" and "atmosphere" of the club, a comment that protesters outside the facility Thursday said showed that racism was involved.
Bernice Duesler, John Duesler's wife, called the negative response her husband has faced since the incident "unbearable."
"He's not one of the good guys -- he's one of the great guys," she said, holding back tears. "He doesn't deserve this."
She added, "If there really was a racial issue that happened, my husband and I would be the first one[s] picketing."
Jim Flynn, who said he was one of the club members who made a complaint against the children, told CNN this week it was not racially motivated.
"There were a lot of children in the pool and not enough lifeguards," he said. "As general members we were not told that they were coming. If we knew, we could decide to not come when the pool was crowded or come anyway. We could have had an option."
He also said invitations to two other day care centers, neither of which contained minority children, had previously been withdrawn.
Girard College, a private Philadelphia boarding school, told CNN on Thursday it would offer Creative Steps Day Care use of its facilities this summer.The president of The Valley Swim Club on Friday strongly denied charges of racism... more
-
-
xiola
-
added this
-
2 years ago
- |
-
This is disturbing. I believe it is more about the hair than the attire. I hope they say the same thing about Miley Cyrus.
"we;’re being represented by a family of ghetto trash."
"Looks like a bunch of ghetto thugs. A stain on America."
"Looks like a typical street whore."
"What we now are sending the ghetto over to represent us. and if so who the hell is that flea bag who looks to be dragged from the trash dumpster."
"you could go down any ghetto right now and see exactly the same."
"could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there"
"the world must be laughing like mad right now at that we have this kind of street trash in our white house."This is disturbing. I believe it is more about the hair than the attire. I hope they... more
-
-
A private suburban swim club accused of racism after it canceled the memberships of dozens of minority children says it will seek a meeting with the kids' camps to work out an agreement for them to return.
Amy Goldman, a member of The Valley Club, said those able to attend a hastily called meeting Sunday afternoon voted unanimously in support of reinstating the memberships of the Creative Steps day camp and two other camps as long as safety issues, times and terms can be agreed upon.
The Creative Steps camp had arranged for 65 mostly black and Hispanic children to swim each Monday afternoon at the gated Huntingdon Valley club, which is on a leafy hillside in a village straddling two overwhelmingly white townships. But after the group arrived June 29, camp director Alethea Wright said, several children reported hearing racial comments and some swim club members pulled their children out of the pool.
The camp's $1,950 was refunded a few days later.
The president of the swim club's board of directors, John Duesler, has said the decision was made out of safety considerations, not racial concerns.
"We have near-unanimous approval from our membership, so at this point we'll be figuring out ... how to approach all the camps and see how we can move forward," Duesler told WPVI-TV at the club's entrance on Sunday.
The swim club has claimed it has a diverse, multiethnic membership, but Goldman, a member for two years, said she couldn't remember seeing a black member this year.
Goldman said members were told that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which has opened an investigation, is to make a fact-finding visit to the club July 30. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., said Friday he had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate "to determine what action, if any, is warranted by the Civil Rights Division."
Others to criticize the club include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the United States' highest-profile black swimmer, Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones, who said Thursday that "hearing about what's happened to these 65 kids is both disturbing and appalling."
Chuck Wielgus, executive director of USA Swimming, the governing body for the U.S. swim team, said he was stunned by the accusations against the club.
Wright, the camp director, didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Sunday evening. She said earlier that other institutions had offered to host her group at their pools for the summer.
Camp parent Silvia Carvalho said she hadn't heard about the club's action but didn't believe her 9-year-old daughter, Araceli, would be willing to return.
"She has already said so," Carvalho said Sunday night. "She doesn't want people to look at her the same way."A private suburban swim club accused of racism after it canceled the memberships of... more
-
-
Big Brother's Not Coming - He's Here. Conspiracy Documentary about the NWO and Secret Society. Tens of millions of people across the globe are now turning to David Icke's extraordinary information as the world he has predicted in his books and talks since 1991 becomes our daily experience. We are seeing the pages of George Orwell's 'novel', 1984, turning by the hour as the Big Brother surveillance State expands towards its goal of a global facist dictatorship. David Icke has spent the last nearly 20 years researching in more than 45 countries and uncovering the cabal of interbreeding families behind this agenda for human enslavement and their goals and methods of operation and manipulation. In this two-hour presentation at the famous Oxford Union, he encapsulates humanity's current plight and how we can secure our freedom from the Hidden Hand behind global events. It is designed to be a simple introduction to the staggering revelations that he has long exposed in detail in his books. If you want to know what is really happening in your world, and why, this is not to be missed. Your freedom and that of your children and grandchildren could well depend upon itBig Brother's Not Coming - He's Here. Conspiracy Documentary about the NWO... more
-
