Rep. Tom Reed’s statement on the Charlottesville White Supremacy rally was posted on 
his Facebook page on Monday morning. It was after President Trump’s first Charlottesville statement on Saturday afternoon, and before Trump’s secind statement later on Monday.
“I’m outraged by the violence and senseless deaths that occurred today in Charlottesville and condemn those who would abuse our freedoms and divide us with bigotry. Hatred will never have a place in the true American spirit. Our condolences are with the families of all three of today’s victims.” (Rep. Tom Reed’s Website)
It looks as if he followed the President’s lead of condeming the violence and not mentioning the White Supremacy movement.
On Tuesday, The Hill included our congressman in an article entitle, “GOP stands by Trump after Charlottesville”. It read:
“I think the left is trying to make this political and it shouldn’t be,” said one vulnerable House Republican. “I’m disgusted by the heat from both sides.”
“I believe his message has been clear that racism, bigotry and hatred is not American and must be rejected in its entirety,” added Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) a Trump ally who said he still backs the president.
Asked if he had any concerns about Trump’s initial response, a top aide to a conservative congressman replied: “None.”
“Despite whatever faults Trump has, he is not racist or anti-Semitic. … Trump did not earn this.” (The Hill, 8/15/17)
This was before Trump’s controversial Tuesday’s news conference.
The President has again placed the Congressional Republicans in a situation where they have to decide to either follow the President lead, or to act ethically. Rep. Reed is presently following the President. Some Republicans are begining to speak out against the stance that President has taken.
For example, our eastern neighbor Rep. John Katko of the NY-24, also a republican, objected to Trump’s “I think there is blame on both sides” statement. On Wednesday Katko said,
” As I stated this weekend, and again yesterday, there is absolutely no place in public discourse ofr racism, bigotry, or white supremacy. President Trump should outright condemn these words and actions under all circumstances.” (Finger Lakes Times, 8/17/17)
For more artices featuring GOP responses to Trump’s statement see the Los Angeles Times article, “Republicans distance themselves all over again from Trump’s recent remarks” and “Trump, Graham feud over President’s Charlottesville response.”
It is time again to let Rep. Reed know our feelings on the legitimizing the White Supremacy culture.
Reed’s Offices Phone Numbers
- Reed’s Washington Office: Phone: (202) 225-3161
- Olean Office: Phone: (716)-379-8434
- Corning Office: Phone: (607) 654-7566
- Jamestown Office: Phone: (716) 708-6369
- Geneva Office: Phone: (315) 759-5229
- Ithaca Office: Phone: (607) 222-2027
- Rally Information:
Hornell Stands With Charlottesville (NewNY23rd article)
Link to Sprectrum News report on the Hornell event,
New NY 23rd 
Good.
Thank you.
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Letter to Reed. Done.
Phone call to Reed. Done.
Congress is in recess.
Reed is holding no town halls
He goes to ground when things get too hot.
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No doubt Reed is doing his usual recess fundraising, but oddly, he hasn’t been bragging about it on Twitter as he usually does.
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Many of us are finding that when we call Reed’s offices (both DC and Corning) about Trump’s recent moral equivalency comments that the staffers immediately start defending Trump and Reed to the point of arguing. Maybe he is feeling the heat.
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That would be sweet!
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Now THIS is how you make a statement. There are a few brave Republicans out there willing to do the right thing. But far too many are content to utter mealy mouthed mush. If more Republicans were like Mitt Romney the Republican Party could avoid becoming known as the party of traitors, racists, and scoundrels.
Are you listening, Tom Reed?
I will dispense for now from discussion of the moral character of the president’s Charlottesville statements. Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn. His apologists strain to explain that he didn’t mean what we heard. But what we heard is now the reality, and unless it is addressed by the president as such, with unprecedented candor and strength, there may commence an unraveling of our national fabric.
The leaders of our branches of military service have spoken immediately and forcefully, repudiating the implications of the president’s words. Why? In part because the morale and commitment of our forces–made up and sustained by men and women of all races–could be in the balance. Our allies around the world are stunned and our enemies celebrate; America’s ability to help secure a peaceful and prosperous world is diminished. And who would want to come to the aid of a country they perceive as racist if ever the need were to arise, as it did after 9/11?
In homes across the nation, children are asking their parents what this means. Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Muslims are as much a part of America as whites and Protestants. But today they wonder. Where might this lead? To bitterness and tears, or perhaps to anger and violence?
The potential consequences are severe in the extreme. Accordingly, the president must take remedial action in the extreme. He should address the American people, acknowledge that he was wrong, apologize. State forcefully and unequivocally that racists are 100% to blame for the murder and violence in Charlottesville. Testify that there is no conceivable comparison or moral equivalency between the Nazis–who brutally murdered millions of Jews and who hundreds of thousands of Americans gave their lives to defeat–and the counter-protestors who were outraged to see fools parading the Nazi flag, Nazi armband and Nazi salute. And once and for all, he must definitively repudiate the support of David Duke and his ilk and call for every American to banish racists and haters from any and every association.
This is a defining moment for President Trump. But much more than that, it is a moment that will define America in the hearts of our children. They are watching, our soldiers are watching, the world is watching. Mr. President, act now for the good of the country.
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Powerful.
Do you know if it has been posted on Reed’s Facebook pages?
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I already left a copy of Romney’s statement as a reply to this post by Reed.
However, if you haven’t been blocked by him I encourage you and anyone else reading this to do so as well. The more the merrier.
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I’m afraid that I am not much of a social media butterfly, so I can’t.
Thanks for what you do.
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Trump pardons Joe Arpaio
1. Removes any doubt about Trump’s pro-racist credentials.
2. Confirms that Trump has absolutely no respect for the law. McCain: “The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.”
3. Trump’s knowledge of the power of the pardon gives him unlimited power. Anyone subpoenaed by Mueller can tell Mueller to stick it, knowing Trump will pardon them.
4. Conservatives who condone Trump’s pardon also have no respect for the law. There seem to be a lot of them. I wonder what Tom Reed will say?
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Collins, Reed push for bill to help “Dreamers”
Buffalo News 9/12/2017
http://buffalonews.com/2017/09/12/collins-reed-push-bill-help-dreamers/
Art’s unofficial Reed Vs. Democrats Publicity Tally For NY-23 since 11/9/2016
Includes Town Halls, Television Appearances, Editorials, Press Conferences, Newspaper Articles, Missed Opportunities
Tom Reed 33
Democrats 8
Democrat Missed Opportunities 5
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I liked your letter in the FLTimes, Arthur.
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I appreciate the feedback. Thanks, Rich
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Washington Post 9/14/2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-cautious-but-encouraged-by-trumps-outreach/2017/09/13/88590f20-989a-11e7-b569-3360011663b4_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_trumpdemocrats-847pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
“Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), a Trump supporter who also attended the afternoon gathering, said the president “has seen the theater up here and learned the lesson: Extremes on both the right and left are problematic to getting his agenda accomplished. You can’t run a partisan bill to the finish line, so he knows he has to have his Plan B ready.” ”
Includes a photo of Reed next to Trump
Art’s unofficial Reed Vs. Democrats Publicity Tally For NY-23 since 11/9/2016
Includes Town Halls, Television Appearances, Editorials, Press Conferences, Newspaper Articles, Missed Opportunities
Tom Reed 34
Democrats 8
Democrat Missed Opportunities 5
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This seems to be germane to this discussion.
Read the entire piece.
Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold!
Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men!
Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore, And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.”
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again, America!
O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath— America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
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