She died for her country

Two American lives collided Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, a clash between what the U.S. stands against and what it stands for. James Alex Fields Jr., 20, came to Charlottesville with a mindset where hatred is lifeblood, where skin colour is what matters. Standing with white nationalists, he brandished a shield with the emblem of Vanguard America, a group that preaches that the United States “is to be a nation exclusively for the white American peoples.”

Heather Heyer, 32, came from a worldview that does not abide bigotry. “Heather was not about hate,” her mother, Susan Bro, told The Huffington Post. “Heather was about bringing an end to injustice.”

Heyer was in a crowd of counter demonstrators when a 2010 Dodge Challenger with tinted windows came barrelling down a narrow street at high speed, ramming two other vehicles. Police said Fields was driving the car. Bodies flew through the air from the impact. Nineteen people were injured. Heyer was killed. Fields was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

What played out when these two lives intersected wasn’t about conflicting political perspectives over a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park. It was a far simpler, more distilled encounter pitting hatred and exclusion against love and egalitarianism.

“She died for a reason,” Felicia Correa told the Washington Post. “I don’t see any difference in her or a soldier who died in war. She, in a sense, died for her country.”

The awful events of the weekend provide ample grounds for another statue to be erected in Emancipation Park, this one of Heather Heyer.