The news from Charlottesville

Shed light on freedom in response to vile messages

What happened in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday displayed a readiness to express hatred, eagerness for confrontation and a willingness to commit violence. The ideas espoused, protected by the First Amendment as they should be, are repugnant and deserving of condemnation by fellow Americans.

For those who have any sense of humanity within their souls, the horrific crash of a car into a group of counter-protesters — also people expressing themselves as free Americans — is sickening. That anyone should die because Americans are engaged in the act of speaking their minds is fundamentally wrong.

Anyone who has uttered the phrase “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to your death your right to say it” would nonetheless have had his patience challenged last weekend in Charlottesville. Groups identifying themselves as the KKK, white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and by other names got what they wanted — an emotion-filled reaction to the nauseating views they spew.

An honest assessment would also condemn opponents who showed up ready to perpetuate violence in supposed defense of peace, respect for diversity and love for one another. But many counter-demonstrators stood up in Charlottesville not to fight, but to plainly state that bigotry will not win the day, that hatred in this nation will meet with resistance, that those preaching a vile message of racial supremacy may be able to speak, but will not be able to advance their cause without challenge to their flawed ideas.

President Trump finally … finally! … got around Monday to expressing condemnation for the white supremacist groups that flocked to a rally in Charlottesville. Perhaps this nation is going to just have to get used to a president who needs two or three tries before common decency sets in, or at least can be written for him. Federal authorities have opened a civil rights investigation into the events in Virginia and Trump’s belated pledge to hold anyone who acted criminally “fully accountable” is welcome.

And then, Tuesday at Trump Tower happens. The president regressed to comments that lend cover to the white supremacists in Charlottesville and their ideas. Certainly any violence initiated by anyone — anyone — in Charlottesville was wrong. But the ideas espoused by the different sides matter, and advancing racism is so repugnant even this president should be able to launch an full-on, gut-felt defense against those ideas. A president or presidential candidate cannot control who speaks out in support of his candidacy. If Charles Manson wants to endorse Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, that’s Manson’s business. But a president is responsible for the ideas he advances and he does control his response to those who say they support him. Some at the weekend’s racist rallies said they were invigorated by Trump’s election. Trump’s first response Saturday was insufficient for the leader of this nation, but based on Tuesday’s rant, may have reflected his true beliefs.

Likewise, universities can’t dictate who does and doesn’t wear school T-shirts. A widely circulated photograph from the rally included a man wearing a cardinal-colored T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Arkansas Engineering.” Whether the man was an alumnus of the UA or bought the shirt on the clearance rack at a Goodwill store, the shirt was all some folks needed to condemn not just an entire university, but the entire state. That, too, is a small-minded response, one that groups people together and paints them with far too wide a brush.

University of Arkansas Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz spoke to the institution’s reaction with a Twitter post: “Diversity & inclusion are @Uarkansas values. Not this. We value free speech but condemn hatred, violence & white supremacy.” Finally, a tweet worth repeating.

Moving forward, those around the nation appalled at the ideas of white supremacists must remain mindful that those groups want violence. One need only look at how they arrived in Charlottesville, prepared with shields, steel batons and, in some cases, guns, to know their intent. They come ready to pour out fuel, just hoping that someone — anyone they can blame — will light a match.

What the rest of the nation must keep its eye on isn’t the frustrating and incendiary words that proceeds from the mouths of hate-filled peddlers of malevolence, but on the light that shines from liberty, equality, freedom and peace.