Unite What’s Right

By Hank Silverberg 

There they were again--Nazis, skinheads, white supremacists--standing in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House waving the flag and calling it a “white civil rights movement.” Your first reaction should be, “What?” 

For those of you who read this blog on a regular basis, you will find this one a bit different.  It has to be. 

For more than 200 years, with some notable exceptions, the white, protestant, elite has ruled America. But the majority of people in America stopped being white years ago. There are hundreds of millions of people who know that and believe it makes us a stronger nation. The folks with the Swastikas and Stars and Bars represent a small minority who don’t get it.  In fact, after all the media coverage and all the rhetoric, only about two dozen people came to the “Unite the Right” rally at Lafayette Park this past Sunday. They were far out numbered by a variety of counter-protest groups and the media. 

My immediate reaction to the first such "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville last year was dismay. The site of the red, white and black Nazi flag that represents the mass murder of six million of my people and millions of others, disgusted me. Those who think the Confederate battle flag represents anything other than enslavement of four million people of color and decades of  segregating Jim Crow laws that followed the Civil War are on the wrong side of history. But this time those symbols were mostly absent. The Alt-Right protesters, perhaps aware of the incitement they spark or trying to look more mainstream, carried the Stars and Stripes. 

 The “Unite the Right” rally was a pitiful display by people who seem to misunderstand history, if they ever learned it. It is an indictment of the American education system for not teaching them enough about the Holocaust or the Civil War. And it makes many people angry at some politicians who are slow to condemn the so called “alt-right,” and may even sympathize with them. 

We need to be cautious here.  These fringe groups have a right to protest and express their views, as disgusting as they are. To prevent them from doing so would violate the U.S. Constitution which we treasure so much.

 So, what do we do?

Racism is far from new. Anti-Semitism is just racism in another form. The best defense against it is the truth, which is why I have written several times in this blog about the importance of a free press and political leaders who tell the truth.   

  

(KKK rally in DC, 1921 

              40,000 attended a similar one in 1925)

This rally was nothing compared to one in 1925 which brought almost 40,000  Klansman for a march up Pennsylvania Avenue. 

These current groups have existed under rocks and in caves on the fringes of society for decades, uneducated enough to think someone else stole from them something that they never earned. What scares me the most is not those people who carry the Nazi or Confederate flags or shout the slogans. Even those who dress up in ridiculous costumes and burn crosses on people’s front lawns, don’t scare me that much. It’s the people who use that burning cross to toast marshmallows who are the real problem, whether they be in elected office or on the air.  They hide behind the people wearing the  white bed sheets, waiting to take advantage of discord. President Trump's latest tweet on the protests this weekend provides a good example.  

	Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
8/11/18, 9:26 AM The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!

A year ago, when violence broke out at the first “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during a protest over the removal of Confederate monuments from a park, President Trump waited much too long to respond to the death of Heather Heyer. She was run down by a right-wing protester behind the wheel of a car. Mr. Trump tried to claim that both sides were to blame for the violence. The words "both sides" still echo in the nation’s ear. It was poor leadership then and it is clear he has learned nothing since. I’m not sure if Donald Trump the man, is a racist. But our President has given aid and comfort to those who are. Whether he agrees with them or is just toasting marshmallows doesn't matter in the long run. He should be relentlessly called on to account for his actions.  

As a country we have yet to “bind up the nation’s wounds” that President Lincoln talked about in his second inaugural address. There will always be someone who thinks they are struggling because some other group has prevented them from getting ahead. 

 We must get on top of this latest deviation from our national creed, “liberty and justice for all,” and bury it with truth.  We must do so now before it produces real violence.  The United States lost 600 thousand lives trying to bury it with Civil War. The world lost 50 million lives trying to destroy it in World War Two. 

There was also a commemoration in Charlottesville on Sunday. It focused on Ms. Heyer and the two state troopers who lost their lives when a helicopter crashed during last year's event. There were at least two ugly incidents there, where a state trooper was punched out and a news crew attacked by protesters on the left.  Video of that will be played repeatedly on right wing news outlets and on-line, claiming wrongfully that there were “riots” by the left wing. Do not be fooled. These were peaceful protests. There were only two arrests connected to the events in either city.

So this leaves us with a big question. What can you do as an individual? You can stand up to those who preach division. Some tried this past Sunday with counter- protests, but it doesn’t have to be that big or that organized. Challenge the alt-right’s false prophets one person at a time, in your family, your neighborhood or your community. Educate individuals on the Holocaust, and on chattel slavery as it really was before the "Myth of the Lost Cause" took over. Put the fire out before anyone can open the bag of marshmallows.  

All Americans after all, are pretty much alike. We have much in common. All most people want is a chance for a good education, a good job so they can put a roof over their heads and food on the table for their children.  

 Those who preach violence, discord and division, are a few rotten apples in an otherwise basket full of colorful, diverse, American citizens uniting for what’s right.   

     (Your suggestions and comments are welcome See section below)