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Rev. Shawn Walker to lead candlelight service

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LCCC nursing forum elects officers

<p>FORTY FORT &#8212; When a flier encouraging participation in the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan made its way to the yard of a resident on Sunday morning, Mayor Andy Tuzinski could not keep silent.</p><p>The flier, which read &#8220;Seasons Greetings from the East Coast Knights of the true invisible empire,&#8221; and included the website address of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, saddened the mayor, who said he always viewed his town as welcoming of all races, religions, beliefs.</p><p>Tuzinski called the phone number listed on the flier and received a call back from a person identifying himself as the director of the Maryland Chapter of the organization.</p><p>The individual said the organization did not identify itself as a &#8220;white supremacist&#8221; organization, but a &#8220;white separatist&#8221; group.</p><p>&#8220;I want my children to look like me,&#8221; he said in a phone interview with the Times Leader. &#8220;I&#8217;m not for physically separating the groups, but just not allowing them to intermarry.&#8221;</p><p>The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he said, are distinct from the original Ku Klux Klan.</p><p>&#8220;Four Ks,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and we are not racist.&#8221;</p><p>Still, the man said, he moved to a neighborhood which is 90 percent Caucasian in order to ensure the safety of his family.</p><p>&#8220;If you look at the statistics,&#8221; he said, &#8220;most of the crime is committed by black people.&#8221;</p><p>In Tuzinski&#8217;s phone communication with the man who identified himself as a Knights of the KKK leader, he said, &#8220;Forty Fort is my island, it welcomes everyone no matter what their color or their belief.&#8221;</p><p>Tuzinski is especially passionate about the issue because his stepfather is black.</p><p>&#8220;The only grandfather figure my children have in their life is African American,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Councilman Dominic Butchko applauded Tuzinski&#8217;s quick response in a phone interview on Sunday.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had our differences,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But, in this instance, he did the right thing.&#8221;</p><p>Still, Butchko thinks the borough should go one step further and pass a nondiscrimination ordinance.</p><p>&#8220;I did introduce such an ordinance in February, but it was shot down,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s fine to tell people they can&#8217;t spread hate speech in Forty Fort, but you need to back it up with law.&#8221;</p><p>Borough resident Miranda S., who declined to provide her full last name, said she found one of the fliers, enclosed in a baggie with rice, on her property while shoveling snow.</p><p>&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t there last night, but it was there this morning,&#8221; she said on Sunday afternoon.</p><p>Miranda said that when her 8-year-old daughter asked her what it was, she didn&#8217;t know what to say.</p><p>&#8220;I told her it was a group of people that wanted others to join them,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I told them they were doing a bad thing.&#8221;</p><p>Miranda said she had always encouraged her daughter to accept people no matter what their race, religion or beliefs.</p><p>&#8220;It went against everything I believe,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t expect this in Forty Fort.&#8221;</p><p>The story made its way to the &#8220;I live or have lived in Forty Fort&#8221; Facebook page, with Tuzinski posting video of his conversation with the individual he contacted using the phone number on the flier.</p><p>Over 30 comments posted in response to the flier and the video all supported Tuzinski&#8217;s stance against the presence of the Knights of the KKK in the borough.</p><p>In the post, Tuzinski said of his conversation, &#8220;This bozo told me that whites should live separately from other races. I told him that maybe only blacks should receive life-saving plasma and blood transfusions in an emergency since the process was largely perfected by a black physician named Charles Drew.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Tuzinski </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_Tuzinski.jpg</photo0><caption0>Tuzinski </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Geri Gibbons</p><p>ggibbons@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Geri Gibbons at 570-991-6117 or on Twitter @TLGGibbons.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Forty Fort mayor, councilman decry Knights of the KKK flyer in resident yard