WARNING TO THE ALT-RIGHT
AFTER condemning the violence in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s greatgreat grandson suggested that Confederate statues be exhibited in museums, instead of public parks. Robert E. Lee V, 54, added that it would be “fine” if lawmakers “choose to take t hose statues down,” CNN reported. “Maybe it’s appropriate to have them in museums or to put them in some so rt of historical context in that regard,” he said. A white nationalist rally – sta ged to protest plans to remove a statue of the Confederate general from a Charlottesville park – exploded in violence Saturday. A Nazi plowed his car into a crowd, killing a woman. “Those sorts of acts on Saturday, that’s just not to be tolerated,” Lee said. there were “very fine people” among the those who donned homemade riot gear and were responsible for spewing hateful racist and anti-Semitic chants like “Black lives don’t matter here” and “Jews will not replace us.”
This kind of hate on the streets of Charlottesville cost three American lives. This demonstration of hate has no place in this country.
As a lawmaker and a mother, I believe it is not only the President’s responsibility, but his obligation, to recognize the wounds our country still needs to heal. Then, when met with violent threats of regression, it is also his obligation to decry hateful words and actions that only promote discrimination and injustice. Equality and justice are the lifeblood of our democracy, and we must consistently defend and fight for those basic tenets.
Statues commemorating the Confederacy should not sit on pedestals, uplifted as a celebration in our cities. They should be in museums as a reminder of hateful and painful periods of slavery and racism in our nation’s history, as well as the institutional racism that persists today.
We as a nation are all better for our diversity, and we are called to love one another. America does not just tolerate diversity; it thrives on it. Trump may not understand this, but we do. If he won’t lead, we have to. And we will.