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Editor’s note: This post is the opinion of the the author and does not necessarily represent The Good Men Project.
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In the wake of Charlottesville, I am thankful for the number of statements of moral support and compassion regarding these “interesting times” I keep receiving from so many organizations who want what is best both for humanity and all life forms on our one and only Earth. Truth is I mainly just read headlines and skim contents of articles regarding the Trump Administration, if I can even stomach doing that. The other internet email activity I engage in is signing petition after petition to protect the environment and human rights, and doing what small donations I can. I did not even know about what happened a week ago in Charlottesville until the day after. Then, like after 9-11, the Pulse nightclub, Syrian Massacres, etc., I self-protectively did not give my entire focus/become absorbed/taken over by yet one more waking nightmare.
Around ten last night was the first time where I really took the time to look at photos of Heather Heyer. She did not set out to be a martyr, a face for a cause, any more than the young woman on her knees crying over the body of a fellow student at Kent State. One of the things which creeps me out about last weekend is that we are not (except perhaps psychologically and in terms of “military actions”) in the time of a Vietnam War. Heather Heyer died in a climate whose roots of hate were fostered and empowered so a man could get votes. Yesterday, the Huffington Post noted Vice President Mike Pence comparing Donald Trump to Teddy Roosevelt due to his “vision, energy and can-do spirit,” but the Trump administration had demonstrated in the last six months that they are not for any lofty “voice-of-the-people,” and are not agents of any great moral social reformation principles at all.
Much of social media is understandably ecstatic that Steve Bannon is now no longer Trump’s Chief Strategist, but as The Atlantic pointed out in an article on 8/18/17, Trump “has gained an unpredictable and potentially troublesome outside ally who has long experience running a media organization, and an even longer list of enemies with whom he has scores to settle both outside the administration and inside. ‘Steve is now unchained,’ said a source close to Bannon. ‘Fully unchained.'” Was Trump complicit in what lead up to Charlottesville by having a person like Bannon on his “Dream Team” in the first place?
On 8/18/17, Pink News reported that “Tony Schwartz, who says he ghost wrote Trump’s 1987 memoir The Art of the Deal, believes the US president is on the brink of leaving office.” The article continues with: “Schwartz says [Trump] would negotiate a deal for immunity in the Russia investigation in exchange for giving up his seat in the Oval Office,” adding “Trump is going to resign and declare victory before Mueller and Congress leave him no choice.”
So is that it then? The man complicit in stirring up the racist hornet’s nest which lead to Charlottesville will simply be able to sail off into the sunset only to be replaced by Pence, a man who lauded Trump’s “vision, energy and can-do spirit”? Meanwhile, Steve Bannon and his ilk will continue with their hateful agendas.
If this is to be the case, no wonder so many believe there is no justice in America, and that a rich person can get away with murder. If this is to be the case, then the chances for another death of someone like Heather Heyer is great and the complicity remains. Heather Heyer was a woman who took selfies, used Facebook, and was not atypical of her age and interests. She was not a radical liberal pink-o commie lesbian feminist who set off a pipe bomb and took hostages to make a statement against corporate capitalistic imperialism. The only “rhetoric” we can seem to find on her is that she was apparently a nice young woman who was against bigotry and who was deeply loved by her family and friends. She was not a person that was part of a torch-bearing mass walking down the streets of Charlottesville chanting “Blood and soil!” “You will not replace us!” “Jews will not replace us!” “White lives matter!” in, as the Washington Post reported, “a symbolic gathering meant to evoke similar marches of Hitler Youth and other ultraright nationalist organizations of the past century.”
In comment sections of news articles on Charlottesville, I’ve read many a defender of the ultraright Hitler Youth state that Heather Heyer “had no business” being where she was, counter-protesting. This is an argument akin to “a woman can never be raped without her permission.” Individuals like this, as those who chanted their hate, are complicit in the polarized political climate which lead to Heather Heyer’s murder as much as James Hyatt Fields, the man who used his vehicle as a murder weapon. There is not an article anywhere I have read which states that the ones marching with torches in their symbolic gathering for ultraright nationalist organizations chanted “Give us a chance to help make this world a better place! Let us show you what we can do by giving us a job so we can take pride in our work!” These people, like Steve Bannon and his ilk, like Mike Pence (next in line should Trump take leave), are not going anywhere either.
When working on the enclosed Heather Heyer image (which is not the sort of work I usually do, a topical current event montage), I kept half-thinking it was besmirching of Heather to have a Donald Trump reference in the piece, but then I wanted to show that her spirit—and what that spirit represents for… millions, really—as being so much greater than the spirits of these millions is what was and will stay great over the likes of Trump. This is why I decided to let faint images of Heather, the plant, cover the Trump reference at the bottom. I really feel and want to believe that while we are caught up in the sweep of this slice of history, that the turning tide point has come; that now is the time for healing heather to continue to take root, spread, and gently, powerfully, cover the tenacious hate. Of course, this hate will go on but the heather will remain greater. If my little attempt at this statement via art does not do whatever it can to make sure of this, then I am complicit too.
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This article was originally published on Ello and was reprinted with the author’s permission.
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Photo provided by the author, and used with permission.