It was a long weekend for all of us.

The story of Charlottesville wasn’t supposed to be like this. Most of us journalists expected to be on our way home soon after the ‘Unite the Right’ rally. Very few had booked hotels for Saturday night. It was supposed to be yet another face-off between the white right and the antifa. Maybe it would be like Berkeley, some trash cans burned, some bruises and tear gassed eyes but, no… nothing like that. We were all supposed to go home after this battle.

It didn’t happen that way though, dozens of people ended up in the hospital and one died. Well, to be exact, she was murdered. Killed by a savage, disturbed racist. I won’t mention his name, as he doesn’t deserve to be remembered. We need to remember Heather.

Heather Heyer needs the remembrance. She deserves the memorials, the flowers, the accolades.  As do the dozens of victims of brutal and heinous hate crimes that occurred that weekend.

There were many beyond just the terror attack that took Heather’s life. De’Andre Harris, for one, a special ed assistant teacher who was brutally beaten in a garage near the Charlottesville Police Department. I witnessed that. It was a scene not too unlike those that happened in the 50’s and 60’s. White men savagely beating a black man on the ground while police stood near by disinterested.  One month on, the police and FBI still are disinterested. It took a campaign on twitter and facebook to find two of the attackers. Much of the credit goes to NY Daily News writer, Shaun King.

Like many of the witnesses of this hate crime, I’ve yet to be interviewed. The FBI wanted ALL of my photos, a suspicious note.

I’ve been trying to not making any statements in regard to that weekend about the President, but he makes it hard not to comment. His, ‘violence on both sides,’ statement should have been the end of it. The moment that the media finally ended it’s desperate attempt to normalize this

As I write this a statement condemning white supremacy is on its way from the Capitol to the White House. Trump has had no comment on if he’ll willingly sign it or not.

This is the nation that we all live in today.

 

As Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, said weeks ago, “My daughter had a mission to make things fair and equitable for everyone, and I’m going to continue that mission.” Let’s do that too.