Charlottesville

Yesterday my mom told me that I hadn’t written anything political lately.

“I miss reading your thoughts on those things. You should write something!”

I had thought about it honestly. But…what can I write after this last weekend and week?

What can I write about white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and KKK members coming together for a very public and very open rally in broad daylight?

What can I write about 3 people dying and 19 people getting injured at that rally in 2017?

What can I write about the President of the United States giving an anemic, weak response to the rally, then condemning the rally 72 hours later, and then going back on his condemnation and blaming the alt-left for the violence?

What can I write about the leader of the free world giving white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and the KKK a free pass to continue to spread their hatred, racism, and violence?

How can you even start to comprehend that in 2017, we have to sit down with kids and say “Hey, Nazis and the KKK are bad. Don’t follow our President’s lead.”?

I have tried for the past six days to try and understand what the rally meant and why it happened. Why people died. What it is so damn hard for our President to say “Hey, white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and KKK members are bad. I don’t agree with them and fully condemn their actions as despicable.”

I have tried to understand why the rally that happened in Charlottesville featured a bunch of white guys yelling about being oppressed and replaced.

Replaced?

Oppressed?

European, white men have literally ruled the world for ages.

I find it difficult to believe that they can even begin to understand what being oppressed means.

The only rationale I have come up with is maybe these guys are mad about the fact that they no longer get the top place in society by default.

They have to actual compete for jobs based on skill level and expertise. God forbid a white guy should lose out on a job because a minority or woman candidate was more experienced.

(Wait…that feels familiar. November 7, 2016 anyone?)

But at the end of the day, I honestly don’t care what their reasoning for the rally was.

White supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and KKK members should not be proud to parade around yelling Nazi chants in the middle of the day.

Our President should not struggle to condemn their actions.

White supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and KKK members shouldn’t whine about being uncovered on social media and identified after they have the gall to march around with tiki torches, yelling ‘blood and soil.’

If they wanted privacy, they should’ve just gone all in and worn their white hoods and robes.

I don’t think we will ever be able to fully explain the Charlottesville.

I don’t think we will ever be able to fully explain or understand the Trump Presidency.

I don’t think we will ever be able to rationalize how overt racism, white supremacy, and sexism became suddenly okay to shout from the rooftops.

But there is one thing that I know with 100% certainty: Those of us living through this who know that this is wrong will make sure that this never ever ever happens again. We will not stand idly by and watch the hate filled movement of white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and KKK come back.

We as a country are better than that.

We will fight for what is right.

We won’t let this movement come out of the shadows and divide us.