There is no excuse for racism, hate or white nationalism. In the strongest terms possible, we condemn the acts of terrorism in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend.
White supremacists marched on Friday in protest of the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, which the City Council voted to remove in February. As Americans, their right to march and protest is indisputable. The protection of such vile speech is what makes America great.
But the strong and immediate reaction against such vile speech is what makes America greater. Indeed, some members of Utah’s federal delegation were quick to condemn the violence. But some were not.
Representing Utah well, Sen. Orrin Hatch tweeted on Friday evening that protesters’ “ideas are fueled by hate, and have no place in civil society.” On Saturday, he went further: “We should call evil by its name. My brother didn’t give his life fighting Hitler for Nazi ideas to go unchallenged here at home.”
Reps. Chris Stewart and Mia Love condemned the hatred and violence on Saturday on Twitter, and called for unity against bigotry.
As of Monday afternoon, Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Rob Bishop have been noticeably silent. When Ku Klux Klan members march in America, we expect our political leaders to denounce them.
Utah’s two largest churches — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City — issued statements condemning the hatred, with the Mormon church saying, “No man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ.” The diocese urged “all people of goodwill” to “love one another as Christ loves us; to love all of our neighbors as ourselves, and to put that love into concrete action against violence, hatred and injustice.”
The silence from Sen. Lee and Rep. Bishop is deafening.
No longer can we sit on the sideline and hope white supremacy goes away. No longer can we be silent in the face of hate and evil. Populism, economic protectionism or even free speech do not excuse the hatred and violence of white supremacist domestic terrorist groups. Their violence has been here for centuries because we have allowed it. We have been fighting terrorism for decades; that fight has now come home.
In a speech defending another decision to move Confederate-era statues, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, “These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement and the terror that it actually stood for.”
We can no longer ignore the death, enslavement and terror our early traditions propagated. Calls for unity are correct — we must come together. But we must come together to do more than just talk and condemn. And, at the very least, we cannot remain silent anymore.