The dismaying spectacle and carnage that was last weekend’s Charlottesville showdown and melee has Americans of goodwill — on all sides — saddened and shaking their heads, we believe.
The televised-live uproar represented the latest test of the bonds that, loosely but nonetheless securely, should tie together Americans whose visions of the nation and world may differ quite radically. We’ve come to expect no less in a diverse society of differing means and viewpoints. Nowhere, though, should that include acceptance of neo-Nazis or white supremacists.
Yet, nearly to a person, we’ve all expressed some level of disgust at the uproar and violence that tore through the peaceful university town of Charlottesville. We’re perfectly right to feel revulsion at protests that turned violent as white supremacist protesters banged heads with counter-protesters. In the roiling confusion, a car sped through the crowd, fatally wounding a woman. Police have arrested and charged a Nazi sympathizer in that killing.
Protest — of the peaceful kind — is an acceptable, even welcome fact of life in a nation itself born of uprising against British colonialism. What is unacceptable is the violent upheaval seen Saturday in Charlottesville.
In condemning the violence, it can be too easy to overlook the clash of ideas that are vital to the American experiment. Toward that end, we present an extra page today of commentary re: Charlottesville. In coming days, we will do so also on subscriber website myAJC.com.
