https://dayton247now.com/news/local/gallery/conquer-with-love-springfield-community-shows-support-for-haitian-neighbors?photo=1
Springfield, Ohio has recently been subject to both the perversion of the truth of that city and the decency of some of its citizens.
It is literally a drama about the relationship of good and evil.
The twisted lies by presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, (I will not repeat them), have done tremendous harm.
These lies are being defended as lies by Vance who, when pressed, defended the imperative to “create stories” to get the media to pay attention.
No, in fact, he and Trump have been lying about this deliberately provocative story to distract the media from stories about Project 2025 that lays out Trump’s plans for a fascist dictatorship.
It’s no wonder scripture calls Satan “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
The reason this has worked about Haitians in Springfield is because of the very structure of evil itself. Evil is a combination of the structures we have inherited such as racism, classism, sexism and so forth that combine with people’s individual sins like selfishness, greed, willful ignorance to make up a toxic stew that is relatively easy to cook up.
Haitian immigrants in Springfield are easy targets for all the racism and anti-immigrant fervor of our history and, in truth of the Trump/Vance campaign. When you combine that with deliberate lies provoking the worst kind of images such as alien perversities, situations can explode. Those exact images have provoked extremists to threaten and harass that whole town. More than 30 bomb threats have emptied schools, hospitals and City Hall.
And yet, because of all this, hundreds showed up to a Haitian-Creole restaurant in a show of love and support organized by two residents.
“’I think of people that work hard,’ said Springfield native, Mark Houseman. ‘Springfield is diverse,’ added dinner organizer, Steve McQueen. ‘We’re actually a beautiful city,’ said Terrance Crowe, another Springfield native.”
There has been even more good in Springfield as the arrival of the Haitian immigrants has fueled a revival of Springfield that was an aging and declining town before their arrival.
But genuine harm has been done. That is certain.
I dearly hope that the stain of such deliberate lying and provocation will stick to the Trump/Vance campaign like the foul substance it is.
We should spread the word about the good that is happening in Springfield, Ohio.
I wonder if there isn't something law enforcement could do to better trace the caller(s) of bomb threats. It's obviously an incentive for an evil, sick person to see how disruptive such a call is, and then repeat it over and over.