Thinking of Heather Heyer today.
She was a young woman. A fellow Bernie supporter. A good egg. She showed up. She showed up in Charlottesville a year ago today, to stand up and speak up for tolerance, for the pluralism that defines us as a country and is what truly makes us great. She stood for that. She stood against hate. The hate that was enveloping the city of Charlottesville that day. The hate that has been unleashed and encouraged in our country by our disgusting president. She stood against that. She stood for love.
Heather was murdered by a hateful, domestic terrorist who intentionally used a car as a weapon by plowing it into a crowd of peaceful counter-protesters--who were there to counter the hateful neo-Nazi event going on that day.
Not only is the fact that Heather was murdered bothering me--and "bothering" seems like far too mild a word--something else is still, very much to this day, really upsetting me too: even this morning, a year later, the news coverage of Heather's death, of what happened, is white-washing ( <-- pun not intended yet apt, so I'll keep that phrase) it by referring to it, as they have for this entire year since it happened, as "a car crash". I was just watching CNN and they had Heather's mom on. The news anchor referred to what happened as that Heather "died in a car crash."
NO: she didn't die "in a car crash". Make no mistake about this, let history record the truth: Heather Heyer was MURDERED BY A DOMESTIC TERRORIST, who used a car as a weapon. It wasn't some unintended, unfortunate accident that happened when "very fine people on both sides" got out of hand: NO, let history show that Heather Heyer was murdered in a terrorist attack, by a neo-Nazi who intentionally plowed a car into a group of peaceful counter-protesters, in order to do what terrorists do: TERRORIZE, and kill. SAY IT, news media! It wasn't a "car crash", it was a "terrorist attack". Not all terrorists are Muslim. Not all terrorists are foreign. Some are Americans. Some have white skin. Some may call themselves Christian. The one who murdered Heather Heyer was American, and white. I don't know or care what his belief system was, obviously it included being full of hate and being violent. He was a murderer. And he was definitely a terrorist: using a vehicle as a weapon of murder by plowing it into a crowd of peaceful protesters is designed to terrorize.
Every time those in the media refer to Heather's death as happening in "a car crash", or "that car crash", it makes it sound like it was an unfortunate accident. Just something that happened when a protest got out of hand. Again, NO: Heather Heyer was intentionally murdered by a domestic terrorist.
That's who the "very fine people", as the President described them, are on the other side. So there aren't two equivalent sides here. There are those racist, anti-semitic bigots, full of hate, who have some violent terrorists among them, and then there are those standing for tolerance, non-violence and the e. pluribus unum that is the best part of America.
So today, I remember Heather Heyer. I remember what she stood for. And I think of what took her away. It's up to the rest of us to keep standing for good--tolerance, respect, diversity, love, and a welcoming country. And when we see hate, we call it hate. When we see violence, we call it violence. When we see terrorism and murder, we call it terrorism and murder, not a "car crash".
Rest in peace, Heather. As your fellow peaceful protester from way back before you were even born, as your fellow Bernie supporter, as your fellow liberal American, I wish I could have had your back that day, but I have your ideals and I have America's back. I won't be silent. I won't be complicit. I will continue to resist the hate that is threatening to envelop our beautiful country. I'll continue to fight for tolerance, and for the ideals that so many, including you, who have cherished them and cherished what America really stands for, have fought and died for. You are not forgotten, and neither is the America that we both love. That's the one I'm fighting for. And I'm not alone.
#Resist
