[Magdalen] Tragedy in Charlottesville

[Grace Cangialosi]

Well, you all are partly right about this awful situation...and "Tragedy" is exactly what it is.  I live about 12 miles north of Charlottesville, and when people ask where I live, I usually just say Charlottesville, because nobody's heard of Ruckersville!

This started out as a reaction to the decision by the Charlottesville City Council to remove statues from two city parks--Lee and Jackson. For some reason, Lee has drawn most of the headlines. Anyway, the Council voted to sell the Lee statue, since no one could decide what to do with it.

However, as various alt-Right and white supremacist groups got hold of this, it was clear that the statue was just an excuse for them to come here and cause trouble.  There was a small rally in July by the Klan, and that shook folks out of their complacency a bit, but this weekend's rally--which had already been planned by the time of the July event--was spearheaded by a local neo-Nazi and his group, using the statue as a catalyst. They put out a call for other groups to join them, and the event was called "Unite the Right."  (I just wrote "Untie..." like that better). Most of those participants were from out of state, especially North Carolina.

In the meantime, local faith and social justice coalitions began preparing for a peaceful counter-protest. They did non-violence training and held meetings and services. There was a call for 1000 clergy to come to be part of this. Our bishops asked the clergy in our diocese to come. The church where I'm serving right now asked if we could have a prayer vigil, so I stayed here for that. I had already decided I wasn't going downtown.

But I did attend a large interfaith service last night at St. Paul's Memorial Episcopal Church, which is across the street from the University of Virginia Rotunda. The service was terrific, lots of good preaching and praying and singing. Cornel West gave an address, and the national president of the UUC preached. Brian McLaren was there, and there were leaders from all three Abrahamic traditions.
At the end of the service the leaders started leading us in another song, and then another, though that was not in the program--we were done.
It suddenly dawned on me that we were being kept inside, and when I said something about that to the woman behind me, she said there were people outside with torches. They finally told us what was going on and which direction was safe to go in when we left the church. I had been able to park close to the church, so we didn't have a problem getting out. But it did give me pause.

As far as a connection with UVA students is concerned, the university president had urged students and faculty to stay away from the rally. However, when the torchlight procession came onto the university grounds and headed for the statue of Thomas Jefferson, a group of students formed a barricade around the statue. I was stunned this morning, when I saw the pictures of just how many torches there were.

It's going to take the city a long time to get over this, I'm afraid, and the current political climate isn't helping. The governor spoke at a news I conference this evening and made a very powerful statement. He said he had talked with Trump and told him that the hate speech and divisive rhetoric has to stop--told him that twice. Trump made a very general comment decrying violence, but not speaking out against the hate speech of these white nationalist groups. I think they were emboldened by last year's campaigns and the election, and feel they have permission for this kind of speech and action. I don't see that getting better in the near future.

As far as what should be done about Confederate statues, flags and other memorials, that's a topic for another day. It's very complex, and emotions run high. In many ways the Civil War has never ended, especially in Virginia!

Sorry for the length of this. I guess I was processing the whole thing.

> On Aug 12, 2017, at 6:14 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> In a message dated 8/12/2017 5:46:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
> ann.markle at aya.yale.edu writes:
> 
> one dead  and 19 injured when a car plowed into a
> group of counterprotesters -- and  nothing to do with the University, as I
> understand it, but rather white  supremacist rallies centered around a city
> park. I'm sure students were  present, but not a university event  
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 
> 
> 
> I appear to have conflated this sad event today in Charlottesville, VA  with
> some of the demonstrations around the attempts to remove Confederate
> monuments throughout the USA South.  There has been, for  example,
> much trouble in New Orleans.
> 
> The Charlottesville ruckus appears to be a purely political  demonstration
> though it probably involves the same basic groups as the monument
> removals.
> 
> 
> 
> David S.