Rohini and I chose Charlottesville, Virginia as our en route overnight stop while returning from the Eclipse Trip to Tennessee. The events that had occurred a week prior were a definite factor in choosing that location to spend a night and day.
To our delight, the city had sprung back to normal, despite the ugliness of the prior week. This was testament to the fact that the troubles were caused by outsiders, and Charlottesville residents had nothing to do with it. The shopping district "the downtown mall" - a pedestrian street lined with stores, restaurants, and a theater was busy with people, with one conspicuous difference - every storefront had the sign, Love Heather!
The same message was prominently displayed on the movie theater on the pedestrian plaza. Heather Heyer, the fatal victim of the racial scuffle and the action of a terrorist car driver was prominently in the air.
We had an opportunity to talk separately with two long-time Charlottesville residents -- they were, seemingly, a Democrat and a Republican, and gave us their candid opinion about the events. What was uncanny was the similarity of their reports, transcribed in quotes below.
"The controversy around the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue (you can see in the far distance in this photo of the park) was politically motivated, and driven by a petition of someone who was related to an official of the city government.
The administrations (city and state) managed the logistics of the event very poorly - the outsiders, who came in hordes by buses, were given a permit to assemble in the park that was called Robert Lee Park, and now is called Emancipation Park. A short while before the protest, their protest was called out to be an unlawful assembly, and the protesters were asked to leave. The counter-protesters had already assembled a block away.
Rather than steer the protesters out by a different route (the square has roads coming in from all sides), law enforcement steered the protesters away from the park on the same road where the counter-protesters had gathered. This caused the two sides to come into close proximity and violence (shouting, scuffles, etc) erupted. This was soon followed by the car plowing through the crowd, as marked on the map above."
The site of the car attack has now been cordoned off to vehicular traffic and the section of the street has a floral memorial to Heather Heyer.
Perhaps with learning from Charlottesville, the Free Speech rally in Boston the following weekend had immense law enforcement support and much better planning, despite the fact that the size of the gathering was much larger. The loss of Heather Heyer's life has brought forth some unquestionable principles:
To our delight, the city had sprung back to normal, despite the ugliness of the prior week. This was testament to the fact that the troubles were caused by outsiders, and Charlottesville residents had nothing to do with it. The shopping district "the downtown mall" - a pedestrian street lined with stores, restaurants, and a theater was busy with people, with one conspicuous difference - every storefront had the sign, Love Heather! 
The same message was prominently displayed on the movie theater on the pedestrian plaza. Heather Heyer, the fatal victim of the racial scuffle and the action of a terrorist car driver was prominently in the air.
We had an opportunity to talk separately with two long-time Charlottesville residents -- they were, seemingly, a Democrat and a Republican, and gave us their candid opinion about the events. What was uncanny was the similarity of their reports, transcribed in quotes below.
"The controversy around the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue (you can see in the far distance in this photo of the park) was politically motivated, and driven by a petition of someone who was related to an official of the city government.
The administrations (city and state) managed the logistics of the event very poorly - the outsiders, who came in hordes by buses, were given a permit to assemble in the park that was called Robert Lee Park, and now is called Emancipation Park. A short while before the protest, their protest was called out to be an unlawful assembly, and the protesters were asked to leave. The counter-protesters had already assembled a block away.
Rather than steer the protesters out by a different route (the square has roads coming in from all sides), law enforcement steered the protesters away from the park on the same road where the counter-protesters had gathered. This caused the two sides to come into close proximity and violence (shouting, scuffles, etc) erupted. This was soon followed by the car plowing through the crowd, as marked on the map above."
The site of the car attack has now been cordoned off to vehicular traffic and the section of the street has a floral memorial to Heather Heyer.
Perhaps with learning from Charlottesville, the Free Speech rally in Boston the following weekend had immense law enforcement support and much better planning, despite the fact that the size of the gathering was much larger. The loss of Heather Heyer's life has brought forth some unquestionable principles:
- Violence does not cause constructive dialog, it only causes further polarization
- Political agendas confound issues, and frequently stroke latent biases
- All of us are entitled to our opinions, but nobody has an entitlement to superiority and bigotry
No comments:
Post a Comment