More diversity needed
It is always wonderful to see Washington pull a community event together successfully. And we have many such events: The Christmas parade; the Covered Bridge Festival, and the Main Street Farmers Market, among others. Congrats to all the people who put in so much work to again bring us the Whiskey Rebellion Festival.
The opening night had a crowd of roughly 500 people all safely tucked under the new roof over the Main Street Farmers Market area. The people assembled to hear the Washington Festival Chorale and the Washington Symphony, which were both in fine form. The themes were very patriotic and had those hair-raising crescendos that good patriotic music affords us.
As I listened to the music, I looked around to view my fellow citizens. I easily noticed that the crowd consisted mostly of people who were middle-aged and beyond. Not such a big surprise there. But, as I looked around some more, I saw that there were no black people in attendance. I finally found one lone black man in that large crowd. Washington is 77.5 percent white. That leaves 23.5 percent for other ethnic groups. One black man in a crowd of 500 does not equal 23.5 percent. Neither the Washington Festival Chorale nor the Washington Symphony seemed to have any black members.
I am not criticizing these organizations, nor am I calling them racist. What I am wondering, though, is whether we do a better job of encouraging some participation from black and other nonwhite communities. Why so little visibility? Do these communities feel shunned? Perhaps they are. Perhaps as citizens of this historic town we could do better.
I have to give it to that one black guy, though. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly for our symphony.
Patrick Arena
Washington