![]() “What conclusions will be drawn of out 93% white community? And will they be correct?” “This is what the larger world is learning about us,” wrote a commenter. It doesn't sound like either of you are qualified to be organizing or leading anything and certainly show that you have no respect for the country.”Īnother wrote, “So many people clearly care more about the Second Amendment than the first!!”Ī debate has ensued on the Hudson Roundtable Facebook page, as well where residents are expressing frustration over the Memorial Day incident events. ![]() One commentor wrote, “It's ironic the organizer of a Memorial Day event and an adjutant of an American Legion post are out here trying to trample on the First Amendment rights of an American veteran. The Akron Beacon Journal reported on Wednesday that Suchan, who could not be reached for comment, told the newspaper that Kemter was silenced because what he was saying was not “relevant” and the event was to honor Hudson veterans. Spectrum News 1 made several attempts on Thursday to reach out to Suchan and Garrison, but neither could be reached for comment.Ī video of the event, posted on the Hudson Community TV’s Vimeo page now bears the message, “Lapse in sound not fault of Stokes Sound & Video Inc. She was listening intently to the speech and couldn’t respond to him but he heard her say, “He’s not supposed to say that.” “I was very, very angry, very upset that those two people are basically putting me in that position and then taking control of my equipment,” Stokes said.Īt the time, Stokes didn’t realize the intent was to silence Kemter as he spoke about African Americans' contribution, he said.īut minutes before the incident, Stokes had approached Suchan to ask her how everything sounded. After about two minutes, Garrison turned the volume back up. To protect his equipment, Stokes pointed to the volume knob, which Garrison turned down, he said. The pair had ordered Stokes to cut the sound, but he refused, so Garrison began pulling on cords on the sound board, Stokes said. He told Kemter he had been ordered to cut the sound by event organizers, Cindy Suchan, a Hudson resident, and Jim Garrison, an adjutant of American Legion Lee-Bishop Post 464, Stokes said. But when Kemter’s speech ended, Stokes said he approached him to let him know it was no accident. When the sound was cut, Kemter thought it was a glitch in Stoke’s system and kept speaking. “I wanted to inform the people of the contribution that these African Americans had made in establishing the first Memorial Day service, and then in later years, keeping that alive in the South, until finally, the city of Charleston has put up historical markers about it,” Kemter said. Kemter had begun talking about the freed slaves in Charlotte who at the end of the Civil War had returned to a Union prisoner-of-war camp and dug up soldiers’ bodies from a mass grave to give them a proper burial, he said.Ī month later, a ceremony was held - widely considered by historians the first Memorial Day - when more than 10,000 participants walked through Charlotte, carrying flowers, and singing a song about abolitionist John Brown, who was born in Hudson. “This is why you moved in closer, so you could hear this,” Kemter joked to the crowd when the sound went out, continuing his speech. The men knew each other growing up in Hudson.īefore he began speaking, Kemter had asked the crowd to move closer because he was eager to share some obscure information he had found while researching for the speech, he said. Stokes, a Hudson resident who owns Stokes Sound & Video, and was providing sound for the ceremony. On Monday, when the sound went out, Kemter at first tapped the microphone, and then with a smile said, “A.J., mic,” to draw the attention of A.J. ![]() “My whole intention at that speech was to be educational and informative, as to the origin of Memorial Day - kind of why we have the services that we do,” he said. Barnard Kemter’s 11-minute speech, about the origins of Memorial Day.Ī Hudson native, Kemter moved away from his birthplace in 1970, but as a former Army lieutenant colonel, he has been asked to serve as keynote speaker for Memorial Days past, he said.
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