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Fiscally distressed Luzerne County municipalities identified in new report

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Gene Stilp watched his hard work go up in flames, just as he planned.</p><p>In a one-man demonstration Thursday outside the Luzerne County Courthouse, the Harrisburg activist burned the Confederate and Nazi flag he&#8217;d made the night before.</p><p>It was the latest stop on the 67-year-old&#8217;s tour across the state to raise questions intended to spark some soul searching and reflection on the public&#8217;s part.</p><p>&#8220;Is there racism in Luzerne County? I don&#8217;t know. People have to answer that for themselves,&#8221; said Stilp, who previously ran for Congress as a Democrat.</p><p>And if there is racism, how do you get rid it? &#8220;That&#8217;s a good question for people to answer. I don&#8217;t have the answer for that,&#8221; Stilp said.</p><p>The tour stops in Adams County on Friday to mark the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address delivered Nov. 19, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. </p><p>Stilp&#8217;s idea grew out of the sale of Confederate flags at the Bloomsburg Fair held annually in September and highlighted Stilp&#8217;s penchant for theatrics to make his point. He took a knee to show support for the NFL players who did the same during the playing of the national anthem to protest racial injustice.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an educational point that the Confederate flag, the Nazi flag have the basic same values. Those values include hate, racism, bigotry, white supremacy, slavery and even death,&#8221; Stilp said.</p><p>He joined the flags back-to-back and cited Wikipedia as his source to equate them. He referred to a passage from William Tappan Thompson, a writer and co-founder of the Savannah Morning News in the 1850s who supported the Confederacy: &#8220;As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematic of our cause.&#8221;</p><p>Few people attended the noon-time event that began while the carillon at King&#8217;s College, Stilp&#8217;s alma mater, chimed &#8220;Faith of Our Fathers.&#8221; Jim Spak, of Wilkes-Barre, said he went to school with Stilp and came to show his support.</p><p>&#8220;I applaud brave people like Gene who are willing to stick their neck out and speak out, try and right the wrongs in our society,&#8221; Spak said.</p><p>Former Times Leader columnist and WILK radio talk show host Steve Corbett and his wife Stephanie Bressler held the flag for Stilp who placed it in a garbage can filled with burning newspaper.</p><p>&#8220;For my father who fought the Nazis in World War II, there you go,&#8221; Stilp said as flames consumed the fabric and leapt out of the can. &#8220;The racist Confederate flag, the hateful Nazi flag are confined to the waste bin of history.&#8221;</p><p>Stilp added that the flag burning should send a message &#8220;to our racist President Donald Trump who made horrible remarks&#8221; after Heather Heyer was killed when a car ran into people protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August. The driver of the car, James Fields of Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder.</p><p>&#8220;I think there&#8217;s blame on both sides,&#8221; Trump said, referring to the violence at the rally.</p><p>Stilp said he&#8217;s noticed a change in the county after Trump was elected in 2016. &#8220;Luzerne County took on a new character as a result of the last presidential election voting for Trump,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Though some people might not show an outward display of racism by flying a Confederate flag, they harbor it inside, Stilp said.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m finding attitudinal racism,&#8221; he said, explaining that some people aren&#8217;t willing to accept different cultures. &#8220;The embrace isn&#8217;t there, if you will, of understanding.&#8221;</p><p>Stilp came away from his demonstration hoping it gets people thinking. &#8220;Hopefully, we&#8217;re causing people to reflect and educate them,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Activist Gene Stilp, left, is assisted by former Times Leader columnist and WILK radio talk show host Steve Corbett in the burning of a combined Confederate and Nazi flag outside the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. The demonstration was designed to bring attention to racism throughout the state. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_TTL111717Flag1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Activist Gene Stilp, left, is assisted by former Times Leader columnist and WILK radio talk show host Steve Corbett in the burning of a combined Confederate and Nazi flag outside the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre on Thursday. The demonstration was designed to bring attention to racism throughout the state. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Activist wants to draw attention to racism</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table style="border:none;width:98%;" class="mceItemTable"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;"> paKB_sUPLiI</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;"> YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> Aimee Dilger</p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Activist burns flags in hopes of sparking reflection on racism