A 32-year-old paralegal named Heather Heyer died Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Va., after neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen descended on her hometown. They were there, they claimed, to protest the removal of a Confederate statue. That was certainly their right, but that was only partly true. Mostly, they were there to spew hate. Heyer was marching amid a crowd of counter-protesters, calling for peace and justice, when a white nationalist plowed his car into a crowd, killing her.
Message to President Trump: There is no moral equivalency between good people and neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen, many of whom “protested” in military fatigues and brandished semi-automatic weapons in Charlottesville.
Both sides were not equally to blame for the violence that broke out. Only one side was: the white nationalists who came to instill fear in people who don’t look like them and who don’t follow their bitterly angry ideology.
In the U.S., we purport to be a melting pot, a country of immigrants and freed slaves where all voices and all cultures can be accepted and integrated, to the betterment of us all. While we have long struggled to live up to this ideal, there is no better time than now to show we believe in it by standing up to those who claim that America is a country for white people only.
Let the beautiful life and tragic murder of Heyer serve as reminders that we have a long way to go before we achieve true racial and social harmony. Her brave sacrifice must be remembered.
• Millions died from the scourge of Nazism. It must never happen again.
• In America, everyone should receive the same level of respect, regardless of color or religion.
• Justice and liberty for all is a concept that should never be compromised.
• Fascists cannot be ignored when they march in the streets with rifles.
• The term alt-right only obscures what it truly is: racism.
• No race is superior to another. To claim otherwise constitutes hate.
• Charlottesville reminds us that racism and bigotry are still American problems.
• Heather Heyer died protesting racism. We must follow her example and raise our voices.
• “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu