A woman was killed by a Nazi. In Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. August 13, 2017,
A bunch of racist thugs (white nationalists, neo-nazis, alt-right, whatever your preferred term for these maggots is) hell bent on "white (Christian, male) superority" and their guns descended on the city to protest the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, a noteworthy (for all of the wrong reasons) figure in the US Civil War, and just generally protecting the rights of white people.
This wasn't a march. It wasn't a protest. It was essentially what amounted to one big KKK rally. They came looking for a fight. The governor of Virginia said they were more and better armed than the state police. The governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state.
Once our spineless, illegitimate president bothered to make remarks on the events in Charlottesville, he seemed to, at least in part, blame those who have been disenfranchised by years.
If you aren't horrified by all of this, you either haven't been paying attention, or you need to do some serious soul searching.
I'm not sure if I want to cry or puke. This is not ok.
It's blowing my mind that this happened in the US in this day and age. It just shouldn't be. I'm all for freedom of speech and blah blah blah but I've been spending the the past few days wondering if extreme racism needs to be regularly called out for what it is, which I suspect is some kind of mental illness or a symptom of a brain that didn't develop properly.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I've always said that having the freedom to speak freely does not make you immune to the consequences of said free speech.
DeleteYes. I'm with you on the crying versus puking (maybe both). I feel like every day there is something new and awful about the state of humanity. I loved Governor Mitch Landrieu's speech on the removal of the confederate statues from New Orleans, it makes so much sense when he rebutts those people who say it's history and heritage blah blah blah. Go google it, it will make you feel better about humanity, if only briefly.
ReplyDeleteEvery day I wake up thinking it can't get worse. It always does. And I need to google Landrieu's speech! I'll take anything to make me feel a little better about the state of things right now.
DeleteThinking of you all. It's being reported here too. We're watching from afar, and feel for you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mali. This is exposing a side of my country that I didn't think existed in 2017. At least not to this extent.
DeleteI watched Trump talking about this and I felt increasing, apocalyptic horror, my jaw on the floor. To say that there are 'fine people' amongst the neo-nazis, and to deliberately take the blame off the white supremacists and continually refer to the anti-nazis as 'alt-left', claiming there is as much hatred amongst them as amongst the other side - honestly, we should all be hoping that someone steps up and shoots the f*cker. But then I'd hate to see that person go to jail for it... And then didn't he swing around to camera and promote his winery? Aaagh. His scummy ass needs to be obliterated. You are right about not knowing whether to puke or cry.
ReplyDeleteWith as much as shooting the fucker would solve the problem of removing him from office before he can damage this country more than he already as, I don't view this as a preferred option, if for no other reason but that his loyal base would elevate him to martyr status, which would undoubtedly cause even more issues.
DeleteIt WAS horrifying. :( I suppose you heard that they were villifying Heather Heyer, the woman they killed, because she had no children, too? :p And 45's response did not help matters in the least. I read a post on FB that pointed out they planned everything to maximize the terror impact.
ReplyDeleteBut Boston helped make up for it, a little bit. :) And yes, Landrieu's speech was wonderful!
I didn't see anything about them vilifying Heather Heyer for not having children! Frankly, I'm glad I didn't.
DeleteIn the weeks since this happened, not only has 45 done nothing to condemn this violence, he has incited more violence and more divisiveness. I want to wake up and have this all be nothing more than a really bad nightmare.
https://www.thenotmom.com/single-post/2017/08/18/Magnifying-Heather-Heyer
Delete