Our view: Salem Award still going strong

Editorial, Salem News, March 30, 2010

For almost two decades now, a dedicated group of volunteers has endeavored, in the words of their mission statement, "to keep alive the lessons of the Salem witch trials of 1692 and to make known to our region and the world the unheralded, heroic work of those who bring justice to fruition in contemporary society."

On May 1, the annual Salem Award will be presented to Greg Mortenson, founder of the Central Asia Institute, which promotes literacy and education, especially for girls, in the remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The award was established in 1992 to mark the 300th anniversary of the infamous witchcraft trials. Many of the same people behind the award were also instrumental in erecting the Salem Witchcraft Memorial that same year. Both the annual awards ceremony and the memorial park located just off Charter Street next to the Old Burying Ground, honor the men and women accused of practicing witchcraft who were executed after refusing to admit to the groundless charges brought against them.

It marked the first communitywide acknowledgement that the witchcraft trials, long used to promote tourism in Salem, were also representative of a tragic period in history worthy of reflection and atonement three centuries later.

Thus it's heartening to see the Salem Award Foundation still very active and committed to the cause. Last year its fundraising efforts were supplemented by a vote by the Salem City Council, on the recommendation of Mayor Kim Driscoll, to add a 25 cent surcharge to admissions at the city-owned Witch House to support the work of the Salem Award Foundation.

It's certainly appropriate that tours of the home once occupied by Jonathan Corwin, who helped send 19 people to the gallows as a member of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, today help fund these tributes to the brave victims of the hysteria that swept Salem and its environs in the latter part of the 17th century.

Reprinted with permission from The Salem News.