On Sunday, June 14, the Pikes Peak Bulletin and Community Anchor Academy hosted a gubernatorial Southside Candidate Forum. The forum discussed issues from a Southside perspective. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Weiser was the only major-party candidate to attend.
An article about the forum as a whole may be found here.
A video recording of the event may be found here.
Colorado Springs City Councilor Kimberly Gold moderated the forum. She said, “The Southeast is home to many families, immigrants, and BIPOC residents working hard to build a better future against steep systemic odds.”
She then asked Weiser, “How does your personal family story shape how you view marginalized communities?”
Weiser replied:
“I am a first-generation American. I’m the child and grandchild of refugees. What is behind that story is the fact that both of my grandparents survived the Holocaust. They were the only couple where both of them survived from their town. They managed to find time together, and my grandmother conceived a child in the Buchenwald concentration camp. My mom was born in the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 13, 1945.
“U.S. Army soldiers in the Sixth Armored Division showed up five days later. By the way, my family story when I grew up was that they showed up the next day after my mom was born. My mom researched the archives. It wasn’t one day, it was five days. My grandmother survived for five days, and then the army showed up, and she went to the Swiss Red Cross.
“So, when it comes to thinking about demonization, marginalization, persecution – my family story is one that gives me great empathy and highlights the concern about rising hate. When we are in a situation of rising hate against any group, I believe it must be treated as hate against all groups.
“There was a shooter in Buffalo, he went to a shopping mall to kill as many blacks as the shooter could. That shooter had a manifesto, which said, ‘I’ll come kill the Jews next. There was a shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, who wanted to kill Muslims. And then there was a shooter who was – quote, unquote – “inspired” by that, who killed Jews in San Diego.
“Hate can jump a track.
It was important for me to be at Pride today to say to people, no matter who you are, who you love, you have a right to live as your best authentic self. And no one should be subject to hate, to discrimination.
I believe in America, in the promise … of a more inclusive “we the people.” Or as the T-shirt I was wearing today says, “We the people’ means everyone.’
And so my family background teaches me the importance to protect all communities, not to tolerate hating and demonization against any of us.”
