A shot at redemption on anniversary of hate

Days like this Sunday offer us a chance to pick a side.

We had the chance a year ago, and some of us blew it. In fact, the most important person among us blew it. The president.

On Aug. 12, 2017, the neo-Nazi, whitesupremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned ugly. Counterprotesters turned out to face down the racists, and one of those counterprotesters, a 32-year-old woman named Heather Heyer, was killed when a self-proclaimed white supremacist drove a car into a crowd. He’s been charged with murder.

Another tragedy occurred that weekend when two Virginia state troopers died in a helicopter crash.

President Donald Trump was asked afterward to take sides.

He was asked to condemn the racists, the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists.

What he said instead was, “Well, I do think there’s blame — yes, I think there’s blame on both sides. You look at — you look at both sides. I think there’s blame on both sides.”

On one side there were white men holding torches and giving the “Heil Hitler” Nazi salute.

Both sides?

We know that the racists supported Trump’s election. Former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke and white supremacists like Richard Spencer have

been vocal in their support.

Once asked to condemn such people, Trump said, “You wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about.”

Really? Is it possible to be an American in his 70s and know nothing about the KKK or racists or white nationalists?

After the Charlottesville tragedy, Trump said, “Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists, by any stretch. Those people were also there because they wanted to protest the taking down of a statue (of) Robert E. Lee.”

Sorry, but if you choose to partner with neo-Nazis and white supremacists, to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, it is not unreasonable for others to believe that you might be a racist.

Perhaps you don’t want to believe such a thing about the president.

But then, he did call Mexican immigrants “rapists.” He wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States. He denigrated immigrants from Haiti and Africa as coming from “s--thole countries.”

He’s attacked NFL players (mostly black) for kneeling in protest. He separated migrant children from their parents.

It goes on.

Last year, after the events in Charlottesville, Arizona Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain were among the first to remind the president that there is no ethical parallel between white nationalists, racists and neo-Nazis, and ... human beings.

Flake issued a statement saying, “We cannot accept excuses for white supremacy and acts of domestic terrorism. We must condemn them. Period.”

McCain tweeted:

“There’s no moral equivalency between racists & Americans standing up to defy hate& bigotry. The President of the United States should say so.”

The president could take a tough stand against the neo-Nazis and the racists on this day, the first anniversary of the hate at Charlottesville.

Days like today offer us a chance to pick a side.

We had the chance a year ago, and some of us blew it. In fact, the most important person among us blew it.

He has a second chance.