The events of this past Saturday in Charlottesville were
indeed tragic. A young lady lost her life peacefully exercising her 1st
Amendment rights. She was protesting a
rally of white supremacists / Nazis and the KKK when one of those white
supremacists drove his car into a group of protesters and killed AAA and
injured numerous others.
Let me perfectly clear, while those groups do indeed have
the right to rally and express their views, I abhor everything they stand
for. America is not a nation about hate,
rather it is a nation about freedom and it is a nation built on liberty and opportunity
for all. While such groups do exist,
thankfully their numbers are tiny.
Whether the number of white supremacists in America is 100,000 or 1
million, in a nation of 330 million people they are by any stretch, a fringe
element, a tiny fraction. America has
mostly turned away from such hate so that such views, while protected, are,
thankfully, largely absent from the public square.
That being said, I must also point out that those white
supremacist groups were not the only bad actors at that rally. While many good people were in
Charlottesville to peacefully protest the white supremacist groups, there were
many others who were there to instigate trouble and cause violence. As we have seen over the course of the last
few years groups such as Antifa, or others have become well known for creating
violence around the country. That was
true on Saturday in Charlottesville as well.
At the end of the day, wherever the violence comes from,
whether from white racists or anti capitalist anarchists, it is wrong and
Americans of all stripes should condemn it.
This is particularly true because the fact of the matter is that
Americans, whoever they are, have far more in common with their fellow
Americans than they do with others outside of the country, regardless of what
group they identify with. White
Americans likely have far more in common with black Americans than they do with
most white people from Europe. By the same token, blacks in America generally
have far more in common with their fellow white Americans than they do with
practically anyone living on the continent of Africa. The same holds true for Hispanics in America
vs. Hispanics in Latin America or gays in America vs. gays in the middle east
or many other places in the world.
For all of our differences, the United States of America is
a nation built on freedom, liberty and opportunity. Most certainly our history is not pristine,
but then as with all nations of men, none is.
From European colonization to African tribes selling members of other
tribes into slavery to the tyrannies of Communism or socialism, no nation or
heritage is pristine. But here in the
United States our Founding Fathers gave us the tools to advance our society, to
make it better as we pursue life, liberty and happiness. They gave us a Constitution that gave us the
13th and 14th Amendments which in turn gave us the civil
rights bills of the 1960s. And the 19th
Amendment.
They also left us with something unlike anything found
anywhere in history… Our bill of rights, which promises a freedom of speech
unprecedented in human history. The 1st Amendment isn’t necessary to
protect popular speech, as no government would try and suppress a speech about
puppies or teddy bears. No, the 1st
Amendment exists specifically to protect speech many fine abhorrent, such as we
heard in Charlottesville last Saturday.
That is the point. It is only by
protecting such fringe speech do we protect all speech. Freedom of speech is not freedom to commit
violence however, and that is exactly what happened on Saturday, from both the
permitted groups and some of the counter protesters. While the freedom of speech should be
respected, violence should not be accepted. The 1st Amendment, along
with the rest of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were written
specifically to protect the republic from being taken over by mob rule… which
is exactly what the those who seek to incite riot desire. We will not allow that.
America is most certainly not perfect, and the events in
Charlottesville clearly demonstrate that, but thankfully, events such as those
are an anomaly, far from the norm. Most
Americans are not racists, are not fascists, not part of violent mobs and do
not seek to shut up those they disagree with.
On the contrary, most Americans busy living their lives, they are
interested in having a good job, providing a good life for their families,
getting their children a good education and of course enjoying their
freedoms. They are not out to cause
trouble, to spout racist chants or throw Molotov cocktails through a Starbucks
widow. And for that we should all be
grateful.
And in closing, I would like to say, if we as Americans
spend more time focusing on the things that bind us, focusing on the broader
things that make America great, like industry, innovation and strengthening our
communities, events like those that took place in Charlottesville will be but a
tiny blemish on the spectacular vista of our lives. America is not perfect, but it possibly as
close as humans have seen and it is truly a gift from God. As we go through our daily lives, if we
remind ourselves to focus on her opportunities, on her many advances and on the
fact that most Americans are good people, tensions might subdue and we can all
get back to the business of pursuing happiness for everyone.