For days I spent
hours looking at unfiltered raw video and pictures of what took place in
Charlottesville that was posted by those who were there on the streets. To say
the least it’s disturbing and upsetting. The least. And it’s graphic. This isn’t
edited media news or video, suitable for Evening News viewing. It’s incredibly
sad to see Nazi and Confederate flags (emphasis on the plural) side by side
both then and now.
Yes, the evil
of Nazis and Confederates and what they stood for walks our streets once again
and not just in Charlottesville. They’re proud of their actions and their
beliefs. We fought wars against both of them and they were soundly defeated.
They need to be defeated again.
Nazis and
Confederates weren’t allowed to parade around afterwards, hold rallies and
defend their “heritage” of violence, racism, bigotry, oppression, slavery,
segregation and inhumanity to mankind. This is a heritage that we definitely
need to remember but never honor in any way.
Now, the Nazis
and Confederates have joined forces, along with those who promote the same
agenda: White Nationalists, White
Supremacists, Alt-Right, etc. They are together. They share and defend the same
ideology. They are all Nazis. They named themselves the “Alt Right” and now
have made up a non-existent “Alt Left” to further divide a fractured nation.
They are completely to blame. There is no other group in America that is even
close to the evil they embrace and represent. I can’t think of a way to
adequately describe the gulf that exists between these people and decent human
beings.
If an Islamic
radical drives through a crowd of people they’re called a terrorist. White
people shouldn’t get a pass because they’re white.
Some of these
terrorists thanked our President for not condemning them by name initially. (48
hours later he finally called them out by name.) He is recognized as their
enabler with his words, deeds and history. The terrorists are already coming
out with their truly “fake” news in justifying their actions. Like the Vichy
French of WW II they have their apologists and sympathizers.
Initially the
President of the United States of America stepped forward to their defense.
Unfortunately for our nation a large portion of these terrorists have used our
political system to support a man who suits their needs. They are part of the
base of support for our President and he’s providing them as much cover as he
can under the circumstances. The terrorists are blaming the police. But the
police weren’t the ones carrying Nazi and Confederate flags and giving stiff
armed salutes. They thanked the President for blaming the “Alt Left” for
starting it.
If any of you
on facebook find these words offensive to your beliefs I encourage you to unfriend
me now. I don’t post this to start an argument or even a discourse. The time
for dialogue is past. This is a time for recognition and action. We don’t need
to decide again if Nazis and Confederates are bad any more than we need to
decide if ISIS is bad. I don’t care to hear any of them defended. I don’t care
to hear evil defended. I don’t care to hear hypocrisy defended. We have been
there and done that already. Millions died. We shouldn’t have to fight these
battles again but here we are. It’s soul sickening.
Nazis and
Confederates understand violence and superiority. So, yes, there will be more
violence. It took violence to defeat their misery before and it appears that it
will take violence to stop them again.
So, where is
Jesus in all this? Was Jesus with the driver of the car that drove into human
beings? Was Jesus with the injured? Is he in the pulpits? Is he, like the
evangelists tell us, with the President, because God grants all authority? (Many
of those telling us that we should get behind our President weren’t telling us
to get behind the President when his last name was Obama, and he was black.)
Is Jesus with
the President while he’s making one hateful tweet after another? Is Jesus with
his campaign ad attacking Democrats, media and anyone that disagrees with him? Is Jesus just more fake news to him? Does
Jesus want us to believe that ALL the major news outlets, with the exception of
a couple of Fox news programs, of this nation and the tens of thousands of
working class Americans along with ALL the rest of the world news outlets are
in a conspiracy against President Trump? Does Jesus want us to believe all the
charlatans who say we should break up families and build walls along our
borders? Does Jesus want us to deny those seeking refuge? Does he support the
gross agenda of Nazis, Confederates and all the aforementioned sympathizers?
Does Jesus support the trolls of the internet?
Where is Jesus
in all of this?
Jesus is with believers
and we have free will. This mess is ours. He is to provide comfort and strength
in this ongoing storm.
How do we find
Jesus in Charlottesville? We recognize evil. We call it out. We look in our own
hearts and decide whether or not we’re going to practice our beliefs. Jesus is
already there. He is with the broken, grief stricken and He is sad.