For what? As demonstration turns deadly, the only winner is intolerance

Once again the eyes of this nation's people are forced to look upon, and then away from, a city where a gathering of its own people seeking to exercise their rights has descended into violence.

Too often in hindsight we are able to say, always from a safe distance, that such an outcome was inevitable.

In Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday afternoon, a group of people who, like any other collection of citizens had every right to do so, gathered  in the heart of the city to express their collective opinion.

Their message -- one of bigotry, of hatred, of separatism -- while abhorrent and repugnant to most, is now undoubtedly going to resonate even louder in the ears and hearts and minds of those who already believed passionately in it.

And conversely, the counter-message will come to drown out the former in calls for togetherness, peace, unity.

But between the two, there isn't any to be had.

So far, three Americans are dead. One, it remains unclear whether he or she was a protester or a counter-protester. The two others were state troopers, killed when the helicopter they were riding in crashed seven miles south of the chaos.

Roughly two dozen more -- presumably Americans, also -- were injured in the madness. That number and the number arrested are both likely to rise.

And for what?

Two groups moved to the state of emotional frenzy squared off to lob accusations of intolerance at one another and proved each other right.

We respect and defend in our daily operation as a news source, the First Amendment. And while the Alt-Right, the neo-Nazis, the KKK -- all white separatist groups with insignificant differences between them -- are both united and alone in their agenda, they are also protected under the amendment.

Although we disagree with their beliefs, we cannot fault them for being there.

The blame for the deaths and the destruction that unfolded in Charlottesville will likely be spread around, from those who sought to gather there to protest the removal of a Confederate statue to those who opted to meet them and attempt to shout them down.

It would be nice to be able to think, and believe, that we as a society have overcome all of this. It is easy to trace the lineage of hatred and bigotry that  led to the oppression and subjugation of other races by a subset of another, and the long fight still being waged today to break free, fully, from that history.

The difficult task is the one that remains, how to forge the path ahead and blend a society growing more diverse each day amid the growing voices of those who, oddly, feel they are the true victims, not because of the color of their skin, but in spite of it.

Published in Editorials on August 12, 2017 9:10 PM