Your heroes are losers. Let’s terminate hate ...and that includes you, President Trump
ARNIE v DONALD IT’S TIME TO SAY HASTA LA VISTA TO RACISM
IT’S been a week where The States have been anything but United.
After the violent clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascist protesters, the country has erupted into a new civil war – fuelled by president Donald Trump’s refusal to condemn the far right.
But now, seven days after the events of Charlottesville, Virginia, a real American hero has stepped forward to ask for peace – Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The movie idol and former governor of California yesterday released a video telling Trump to “terminate hate”.
Arnie, 70, said: “As president of this great country, you have a moral responsibility to send an unequivocal message that you won’t stand for hate and racism.”
He spoke after hundreds of white supremacists – some carrying swastikas – descended on Charlottesville last week to protest against anti-racism campaigners toppling statues of Confederate generals such as Robert E. Lee.
Videos showed alt-right supporters chasing and beating anti-fascists who opposed them. One marcher, James Fields, 20, drove a car into a crowd of protesters, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring another 19 people.
Trump initially refused to condemn the neo-Nazi march, and even when he did grudgingly denounce the white supremacists, he continued to argue there was “blame on both sides”.
And as cities across the south began to topple the stautes of Confederate leaders, Trump again attacked the anti-racism movement, tweeting: “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful monuments.”
His words were met with protests outside New York’s Trump Tower and condemnation from Heather’s mother, Susan Bro.
Now Arnie – who previously clashed with Trump over the future of the Republican Party – has told people to learn from what he saw growing up in Austria after the Nazi occupation.
He was born in the village of Thal in 1947 and grew up alongside men and women who had fought for Hitler – including his own father, Gustav Schwarzenegger.
In 1990, with the help of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, Arnie discovered that his dad voluntarily joined the Nazi Party after Hitler invaded Austria in 1938 and fought on some of the bloodiest battlefields of the World War II.
Rather than getting angry at those who uncovered the skeletons in his closet, Arnie befriended Wiesenthal, a Ukrainian Jew
It’s never too late to make the choices to learn and evolve and understand SCHWARZENEGGER
who survived four concentration camps and a death march before helping to bring war criminals Adolf Eichmann and Franz Stangl to justice.
Now, in a video message delivered with power and poignancy, Arnie has begged the people of the world to reject racism.
He said: “There are not two sides to hatred and if you march with a flag that symbolizes the slaughter of millions of people, there are not two sides to that.
“The only way to beat the loud and angry voices of hate is to meet them with
louder and more reasonable voices. That includes you, President Trump.
“In fact, as president of this great country you have a moral responsibility to send an unequivocal message that you won’t stand for hate and racism.
“Now let me write your speech here a little bit. ‘As president of the United States, and as a Republican, I reject the support of white supremacists.
“‘The country that defeated Hitler’ is no place for Nazi flags. The party of Lincoln won’t stand with those who carry the flag of the failed Confederacy.’
“Was that that difficult? You see, I told you. I also have a message for the neo-Nazis and to the white nationals and to the neo-Confederates. Let me be as blunt as possible. Your heroes are losers. You are supporting a lost cause.
“Believe me, I know the original Nazis. I was born in Austria in 1947, shortly after the Second World War, and growing up I was surrounded by broken men who came home from the war filled with shrapnel and guilt, men who were misled into a losing ideology.
“These ghosts that you idolise spent the rest of their lives living in shame – and right now, they’re resting in hell.
“I know you weren’t born with these hateful views. No one is. But the truth is it’s never too late to make the choices to learn and evolve and understand that all human beings have equal value.
“If you say, ‘I was just at the march, don’t call me a Nazi, I have nothing to do with Nazis at all’, let me help you.
“Don’t hang around people who carry Nazi flags or give Nazi salutes.
“Go home, or tell them they’re wrong to celebrate an ideology that murdered millions of people – and then go home.
“You are so lucky to live in a country that gives you every right to say horrible things but think about how you could use that power for something good.
“And to those of you who have been silent, you must also evolve. I learned a long time ago that the only way we can eliminate hatred is to face it head-on.
“Stereotypes about race, religion, gender, anything else, they are like cancer. If you had a tumour, you wouldn’t quietly hope it disappears. You would zap the s*** out of it with chemotherapy and try every experimental treatment until it was gone. This is no different.
“Let’s all commit right now to leaving the terrible ghosts of the past in the trash heap of history. That’s where they belong. Now share this video if you think that hate has no place in America.
“Let’s Terminate Hate.”