Rally in Charlottsville, NC

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Sara, Aug 13, 2017.

  1. Sara Tea Drinker

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    http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/13/us/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-car-crash/index.html

    I kept the title as neutral as possible considering what will be discussed here.

    I remember, in ninth grade, I was just learning about the Right and Left wings of our country a lot more. (Right: Conservative, usually Republican, wants to keep a lot of the same as it is, i.e: Gun rights, no interference, no abortion, etc... Left: Liberal, usually democrat, wants to change things, i.e: Outlaw guns, help people who need it, abortion a choice, etc...) One day during class, my teacher drew a line with three dashes, two at either end, one in the middle.

    I'll never forget what he told us: "The middle is independent or neutral, the far left is revolutionaries, the far right is the KKK."

    To this day, it still sends a chill down my spine. I barely knew about the KKK, but I saw enough pictures to know what he meant, and it scared me.

    I'm not saying all conservatives are bad, as not all liberals are amazing. But after hearing about what happened yesterday and the reactions from the white house, it scares me.

    Yes, the white nationalists got all the permits, signed all the right papers and did everything by the book. They were also wearing full blown body armor that even troops in Iraq don't have and were carrying guns. The fact that they were engaging with people who protested against them scares me even more.

    I'm not even mentioning the car plowing through the people who protested against the White Nationalists, nor the KKK being there.

    I no longer feel safe in this country... And hope and pray to leave soon to another safer country.
     
  2. Day~Dream Kingdom Keeper

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    I've been getting messages about the rally from my news app. I hadn't read the full article so I was unaware of the severity till recently. I always heard that the KKK and Neo Nazis were still a thing today but I guess I never really believed it all that much till this incident. This situation makes me question what year we're living in. I thought it was 2017 but apparently not.

    And Trump's response was just downright un-presidential. The thing that got to me the most about his response was this:


    "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It's been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time."

    The fact that he emphasized both sides like that. It felt like he was putting both sides in one category. To my knowledge only one side yells racist slurs and has a belief system that places one race above all others. -.- He had a moment there to fully address the situation for what it was; an act of domestic terrorism. So for someone who is usually blunt/straightforward, it felt like he failed to grasp the situation. Hell, in one interview I saw that some white supremacist sites were praising his response. That says a lot if you ask me.
     
  3. Sara Tea Drinker

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    They're planning another rally in Texas on 9/11... Man......

    He did another speech today, basically a: "Oh yeah..." After going on about how great the economy is now that he's in charge. I read a bit about the alt right... After seeing what the South is doing, I am getting a passport and leaving. We have a near nuclear crisis on our hands, rioting. (NC was a riot, ask anyone who lived there. One guy closed for the day to open the next, an hour later he closed again because White Supremacists were hanging around after they had lunch there did the Nazi salute and he asked them to leave in a heated exchange. They threatened him as they left and he didn't feel safe staying open.) Or the assault reports still pouring in from Saturday's "rally", not including the domestic terrorist attack during the "rally" and a president who has to have a gun to his head to say this is wrong what they're doing.

    I lived here all my life and I have never considered leaving until now.

    Fun fact about the statue they're rioting over: Robert E. Lee did join and command the South during the Civil War.

    Only because his family lived in Virginia and he didn't want to go against his brethren and friends down there. He was REALLY against the Civil War and against the protests that came out of the War. He just lead it because he was asked, same for the offer of one of the major roles in the Union army, which he declined because he didn't want to fight his home state.
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2017
  4. Day~Dream Kingdom Keeper

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    Well that's just distasteful. I really hope things don't get out of hand again. But then again, it is Texas... where they don't really have laws against guns... good Lord...

    I saw that too. Instead of bringing the people together and calling out those that should have been called out- like a good president would and should, he instead took the time to highlight his "triumphs." I found that to be so disrespectful towards the people that lost their lives and those who got injured fighting for what they believed in. Fighting against a group of hateful people that really have no business living in one of the most diverse countries. Especially after having the audacity to put them in the same category.

    It's unfortunate that all of this started over a statue. I don't know the intentions of all those who rallied for the statue other than some fighting for their icon (one that is known now as a racist icon if he wasn't before) and others fighting to preserve a piece of history (which I can understand to some extent, it is a piece of history after all and history should be preserved to learn from.) but there's just something so unnerving about the crowd that statue of Robert E. Lee attracts.

     
  5. Sara Tea Drinker

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    For them, it's showing that the Confederacy is still alive in some ways I'm guessing.

    My mom lived in the South she said it was the 1800's, the Alt-Right wants to bring it back to the Puritan era. I'm not even mentioning what the South is doing to women's rights down there. It makes me sick to my stomach how much is being stripped away because of rich white men just under 2000 years ago wrote their own version of religious law. (The first version of the bible was written a hundred years after Jesus's death. I'm dead serious.) It's an excuse to strip everyone's rights away who aren't white men.

    They're considered traitors to a lot of the rest of the country, people who rebelled against a nation. Also it is on a previous slave block auction site, making things much more complicated. My mom wanted to go to Boston to join the next protest against white supremacy where they're thinking of doing a rally, I begged her out of it. I don't want her hurt because if NC is any indication...

    You just have to hole up and hope it's over soon. People say it's living in fear, but when you have police overwhelmed and no National Guard coming to help because a President doesn't think it's necessary...

    I think it's common sense.

    Another fun fact: Trump just arrived in New York to a bunch of protestors in front of his Tower chanting: New York hates you.

    I'm dead serious, live link: http://www.cnn.com/specials/live-video-1?adkey=bn

    An article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/nyregion/trump-new-york-city-visit.html
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2017
  6. Day~Dream Kingdom Keeper

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    I 100% agree. It's more beneficial to them if things stay as they were all those years ago.

    With the way things got out of hand in NC, you can bet there's going to be some form of retaliation.


    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ome-counterprotesters-were-very-very-violent/

    So after being criticized for his response, he called out the nazis and KKK in another response, now he's retracting that response and sticking to the first one, placing blame on both sides. Sure, it takes 2 to tango, and I don't know if we'll ever really know which side started the fight, but the main point that Trump still fails to grasp is “There is only one side to be on when a white supremacist mob brutalizes and murders in America. The American people deserve a president who understands that," - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

    upload_2017-8-15_19-3-16.png
    A white nationalist leader, ladies and gentlemen.
     
  7. Sara Tea Drinker

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    I'm honestly scared of what's going to happen.

    My mom lived in Mississippi for a few years, she left and never returned....

    She said she was afraid of finding a burning cross in her yard. This was in the early 1980's... Not the 60's, the eighties. She said the KKK held a rally every Saturday night and they were pressuring her to come, the only reason they allowed was because: "She's from the North, she doesn't understand us." They also wanted to recruit my older brother, who was four at the time into the rallies. There a black man was murdered, driven off the road for dating a white woman by the KKK, it wasn't even investigated. Another woman commented to my mom: "My friend is dating a black guy now, no respectable white man will touch her filthy mouth now and she'll burn in hell."

    People say that the South is improving, that it's getting better... I say that it's never going to change... That there's racism in everyone... In their hearts, minds and bodies... But how you express it, how you, at your darkest moments in life and at your weakest times...

    It really shows people who you really are. I learned this when I was at my Godmother's family, a woman who was straight up catholic with the rest of her family who treated her relatives kids and her own cats like they were her own children torture the family pet of her relatives because her family was doing so... Terrorizing the cat so badly he was terrified of people when they were around and wouldn't let anyone be in the same room as him and flee as soon as they came near him. And she laughed at it, joined in on it...

    Or the time my friend, someone who loved her pets and let them sleep on the bed with her while feeding them pizza crusts, told her riding instructor to give her the whip so she could show everyone how it's done on beating a terrified horse into obedience.

    That's how I look at people.