What happened last weekend in this city that I hold near and dear has shaken me to my core. I've seen several posts along the lines of "can't we all just get along" or "can't we just talk about something else"?
No and no...and because I write a blog, I am going to use it to speak out.
We can't "all just get along". I will never, ever, ever "get along" with people who are filled with hatred and spew vile, racist, xenophobic, homophobic rhetoric and march through our streets with symbols of Nazism and weapons in an attempt to intimidate and harm people who don't look or think like they do.
We can't "talk about something else" because that's how we got here. Talking about our country's history is hard - because there is a whole lot of ugly stuff - but we can't move forward until we acknowledge that as great as our nation is (and I do believe that), much of it was built by slaves - and there continue to be white men (not exclusively, but largely) who want to hold on to wealth and power at the expense of everyone else.
We must acknowledge that the man who currently sits in the Oval Office is an avowed racist who knew exactly what he was doing when he courted white supremacists in order to win both the nomination of the Republican party and the electoral vote.
The Nazis who marched through Charlottesville don't scare me nearly as much as the people who just "want to be nice". As a survivor of WWII who has been quoted recently said:
"Nice people make the best Nazis. They got along, refused to make waves and looked the other way when things got ugly."
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