Front Royal Unites (FRU) birthday celebration for George Floyd

I conducted a one-man counter-demonstration to that event on the bridge on October 14, 2020, and have received criticism for it.  I rained on their 34 participant parade, so to speak because someone needed to.  They had signs presenting Mr. Floyd as a father, an athlete, a friend, and other titles, and my sign said, “celebrate good people not criminals” and “all lives matter”. Their idea represented bad judgment, in my opinion, in that while Mr. Floyd’s killing was tragic, Front Royal Unites (FRU), BLM and many Dems have been making him out to be a celebrity and upstanding citizen. The truth is he was just a victim with a controversial past and was under arrest for allegedly passing counterfeit money at the time of his death. Everyone has the right to demonstrate anything, but it has consequences.

Substantial law enforcement resources were wasted because they had to be prepared for the worst-case scenario where outside agitators might show up, as has happened elsewhere, and we all know how that could have turned out. Fear was injected in our community that there could be traffic disruptions and mayhem that we’ve seen in other places throughout the country. As for one citizen commenting on running over people, demonstrators have no right to impede the lawful travel of the general public. Demonstrators in the street have caused damage and threatened drivers so running them over is a logical and warranted reaction if it came to that. The concept of  ‘do stupid things, win stupid prizes’ applies I think.

Months ago, after Mr. Floyd was killed, there was virtually universal support for police reform.  FRU was created and sponsored a march in support of that concept, but they couldn’t just leave it at that, and Mr. Porter hijacked the situation to claim white supremacy and racism that is not a significant element in our fine community, and that’s how I became involved initially.

I attended the first march, but advertised that I felt Mr. Porter’s allegations were exaggerated, and even addressed it in a Royal Examiner ‘Letter to the Editor’, but it didn’t end there. Mr. Porter told others his group was not interested in the courthouse statue memorializing locals who had fallen in the Civil War but then proceeded to support an effort to have the statue removed, which many saw as a lack of integrity. That issue has been placed on the upcoming ballot and will eventually be resolved but has caused unneeded divisiveness in our community, in contradiction with his group’s name.

Then Mr. Porter came up with the idea that by running for Mayor he might gain a greater platform to press his agenda on the Town.  However, he did not take the opportunity to qualify in a conventional manner so is having to run a write-in campaign because he couldn’t meet the application deadline. Mr. Porter seems to be an educated and capable young man with good advertised intention, and I appreciate his prior service to the country, but his youth and relative inexperience suggest he’s just not ready for prime-time yet, in my opinion. In September, he endorsed the McCool candidacy, but now that has understandably been abandoned.

The FRU group is seen as a BLM supporter, a Marxist group, whose mission is to transform America into a socialist society which is one of the central themes in our upcoming national election, even though socialism has proved to be a failed system and occurs at the expense of individual freedom which is the central tenant of our country.  I couldn’t be more opposed to socialism, and that contributes to why I have spoken against and used my resources to oppose FRU and its leadership.

While I encourage Mr. Porter and others to work to improve our community, it seems their efforts to-date have done more to divide than unify. I hope that he and other FRU supporters will evaluate their strategy to see if better results can be achieved. I’ll continue to observe the happenings in our Town and County and contribute where I can to keep this one of the best places to live, in our beautiful state, in the best country on the planet.

Gary Kushner
Bentonville, Virginia