Two presidents, two responses to acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists…

It is worth remembering this:

 

… when considering this:

 

This is not who we are.  

We are the nation of Frederick Douglass and the abolitionist movement; of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the movement for women’s suffrage; of over 1 million men and women who gave their lives in the fight against fascism and genocide in World War II; of James Baldwin, Dr. King, and Fannie Lou Hamer, Adam Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner of the civil rights movement.  That is the nation we are and will remain long after we have left behind the dark canyon that surrounds us today.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Heather Heyer and all the other victims of yesterday’s violence at the hands of white supremacists.  We, along with all others of good conscience, will continue to fight for the universal respect of fundamental human rights for which they sacrificed so much in Charlottesville.  

And a mother’s words…

We’ll leave you with the words of Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, speaking of her daughter’s death at the hands of James Fields, the man who drove his car into the crowd of counter-protesters:

“I don’t want her death to be a focus for more hatred, I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion. I’m very sorry that [Fields] chose that path because he has now ruined his life as well as robbed a great many of us of someone we love very much.”

“No mother wants to lose a child, but I’m proud of her,” she said. “I’m proud of what she did.”