Tragedy in Charlottesville

In the middle of August a group of white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee located in a park recently renamed Emancipation Park. The horrific display of hatred was met with anti-hate protesters, all a block from the Downtown Mall. As the crowd grew, a white supremacist drove his car into the crowd of anti-hate protesters and killed a woman named Heather Heyer. The event has been a national news item for weeks, sparking heated political debate, causing our asinine president to make ignorant and mindnumpingly stupid remarks, and associating the town of Charlottesville with a horrible, tragic, and sadly historical event.

It's heartbreaking for so many reasons, one of which for me personally is the link that Charlottesville now has to this event. Since then (it's only been a couple of weeks), when asked where I'm originally from, I now get a look of sadness, or even alarm, when I say Charlottesville.

The weekend after it all happened, I took the girls down for a visit with Becky and Ari (mom and dad were in Norway for 2 weeks). We had a good weekend together and went and visited the site where it all happened, which is now a makeshift memorial. The girls of course didn't totally understand what happened, but I find it hard to believe that I even have to explain white supremacy and killing because of racism in 2017.

The makeshift memorial where Heather Heyer was killed. Chalk was left out so people could write messages of hope and love. 

Sophie, Lauren and Ari in front of a "LOVE" sign erected on the Downtown Mall