Tom
Kawczynski in the Jackman, Maine, town hall shortly before the select
board voted unanimously to dismiss him. (Jake Bleiberg/Bangor Daily
News/AP)
Tom Kawczynski, 37, put the town of Jackman on the map when media outlets across the country began publishing stories about his seemingly unequivocal views that Islam has no place in the Western world, and that Americans would be better off if people of different races “voluntarily separate,” according to the Bangor Daily News. Kawczynski, a transplant from Arizona, also told the Bangor paper that he opposes bringing people from other countries and cultures to the United States and that one can be “pro-white” without harboring hate against people of other races.
The town manager’s comments caused a backlash over the weekend: The Jackman-Moose River Region Chamber of Commerce in a statement called Kawczynski’s remarks “shocking and offensive.” Officials in Jackman — a town of fewer than 1,000 people, where nearly all residents are white — remained mostly quiet about the incident until Tuesday morning, when, after a closed-door executive session with Kawczynski, selectmen decided to terminate his employment.
