Yesterday
was the fourth anniversary of the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia
when a Unite the Right Rally supposedly in defense of “sacred” Confederate
monuments faced off against anti-racist and, yes, anti-fascist counter
demonstrators. Klansmen, neo-Nazis,
self-appointed patriot militia, Proud Boys, and Two Percenters
strutted their stuff carrying tiki torches and shouting slogans like
“We will not be replaced!” The right
wingers taunted and attacked peaceful counter protestors and avowed black
clad Anti-fa fought back. Police
either stood aside or sometimes seemed to cooperate with the thugs. Scores were injured in street fighting, and 32
year old Heather Heyer was killed when a car rammed
through a crowd of anti-racists trying to block the path of the white
nationalist marchers.
In
some ways the events in Charlottesville were a preview of the insurrectionary
siege of the Capitol on January 6 which included members of many of
the same groups urged on by the same leaders. And lest we think the threat has
passed just this week Proud Boys, Trumpist fan boys, and Christian dominists
came to Portland specifically to attack Black Lives Matter supporters
and the Anti-fa who have long been a fixture in that city. Two days of street brawls went on as the
local police again stood aside. Police
there have been defiant of city leaders who have been trying to heal
wounds from violent clashes last year.
The
day after the Charlottesville confrontations, I spoke at a hastily called community
vigil at the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry. After
remembering the blood sacrifice of anti-fascist hero Heather Heyer,
I said that it fell to me to be the voice
of anger and outrage. I was not there to lead a chorus of Kumbaya. I recalled
that earlier in the day I had read remarks by Black scholar and activist
Cornel West who was with religious leaders on both Friday night when
the marching Nazis threatened the church where they gathered and
on Saturday when they placed themselves around the scheduled park
rallying point to block access to the Unite
the Right marchers. The ministers
were confronted and menaced with imminent attack unprotected
by police who had withdrawn. “The antifascists, and then, crucial, the anarchists,
because they saved our lives, actually. We would have been completely crushed,
and I’ll never forget that.” West
said. These are the same anti-fascists
that the Cheeto-in-Charge and far too much of the media held to be equally guilty for the violence.
Then I read this:
Munich and
Charlottesville
August 13,
2017
So is this
how it felt on the streets of Munich
when the strutting Brown Shirts
in their polished jackboots,
Sam Browne belts, and scarlet arm
bands
faced the scruffy Commies
in their cloth caps
and shirtsleeves rolled up
and battled in the beerhalls,
parks and streets.
All of the
good people, the nice people
cowered behind closed doors
and wished it would go away—
all of the liberals, the
Catholics,
the new-bred pacifists
of the Great War,
the professors and
doctors,
editors and
intellectuals,
the Social Democrats,
even—my God!—the Jews
who had not gone Red—
a pox on both your houses they
solemnly intoned.
Hey, buddy,
in retrospect those damn Bolshies
look pretty good,
like heroes even.
Things look
a little different in Charlottesville,
in brilliant color not grainy black
and white
and the Fascists can’t agree on a
Boy Scout uniform and array
themselves
golf shirts and khakis, rainbow Klan
hoods,
biker black and studs, and strutting
camo.
But the
smell, you know, that stench,
is just the same.
The question
is—do you dare be a Red today
or will you close your doors
and go back to your game consoles
and cat videos.
Which will
it be, buddy?
—Patrick Murfin
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