As demonstrations grow more frequent and divisions more intense, a Lexington group composed of everyday residents and religious leaders representing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths are planning a grassroots event symbolizing what the community stands for — not just against.
"There's been enough derision, hate, and fear espoused in the name of liberty and the name of justice," organizer Jeff Rubin said with Triangle Park as his backdrop. "Hands Across-Stand Together is instead an affirmation of our better angels."
Another speaker urged community members to "stand hand in hand, heart in heart together."
Rubin said the goal is simple: to urge as many residents as possible, no matter their politics, race, or background, to lock hands in a line running down a route from New Circle along Versailles Road down to Main Street and out to Winchester Road. It's a space that could take thousands of people to fill, Rubin acknowledges, but it's a impression he maintains would prove powerful.
Rubin said the idea came from his attendance at a protest.
"Take the number of people that were there and stretch them out. What a visual presentation you make. And that's a statement I think people can relate to, and that's a statement I think that can get other people involved," he told WUKY.
People are being asked to join the event at 12:15 pm and again at 12:45 pm for for five minutes on this Thursday, August 28 — a date chosen to coincide with the sixty second anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior's March on Washington.