I'm struck by the number of politicians, pundits, and just plain folks who profess their abhorrence of the events at the "Unite the Right" fracas in Charlottesville, Virginia, which resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. "This is not my America," they wail, or "This is not what America stands for."
Sorry, but it IS America. This is the nation that was designed by those godlike figures revered by one and all, the "Founding Fathers" -- a group that included many slaveholders, who wrote what some call a divinely inspired document -- that was so astonishingly perfect it's only been amended 27 times.
To their credit, in the preamble to the Constitution they referenced their desire to form "a more perfect union" -- in other words, the country will evolve and improve. Those improvements have been steady, but there's still a long way to go -- and moments like the murder of Heather Heyer by a deranged young neo-Nazi take society backwards; some of those hard-fought steps forward will have to be taken again, just to get us back to where we were.
Yes, this IS America; it's what America has been since its inception. Don't deny it, don't hide from it, don't pretend things aren't the way they most assuredly are. Recognize the problem, admit the problem, and start working towards fixing the problem.
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