By Kevin Shannahan/Opinion
I am 55 years old. I turned 18 in 1980, registered for the draft and to vote on the same day. I have never missed an election since that day. I do not consider myself an alarmist over our nation’s fate for I am old enough to have seen several electoral swings from left to right and back again. The nation has always shown a remarkable capacity to absorb political and cultural shocks.
Nonetheless, that capacity is neither limitless, nor should it be taken for granted. We allow it to be deliberately tested at out peril. Recent events have given me grave concern about the direction in which our nation is headed and of the health of the culture and political environment we will bequeath our children and grandchildren. Much has changed since I cast my first vote in 1980, much of it not for the best.
Many people worried about American decline see a comparison with the Roman Empire. America’s enemies have indeed grown in power since I was a young Air Force officer in 1985. Back then, China did not yet possess an ICBM capable of hitting the United States. The idea of North Korea having nuclear weapons, let alone missiles capable of striking American territory would have been firmly in the realm of escapist fiction. Even so, we are not yet Rome with the Visigoths approaching the gates.
I fear the more apt comparison is to the Weimar Republic of Post WWI Germany. For the first time in my life, and indeed the first time since Reconstruction, armed political factions are waging battles in the streets of American cities, with more to come. There are a number of disturbing things here. We are playing with fire. The judgment of our posterity will come. Let us be worthy.
“But what about the…?” But what about the…? Feel free to insert the odious antifa group of your choice into that question. There is a depressingly long list to choose from. There was violence aplenty at that rally committed by both sides. In that regard, and only in that regard, are those drawing some kind of equivalence correct. Both sides came looking for a fight and they found one.
Why am I more concerned about the alt-right? Because they are Nazis, that’s why. Looking at the rally on the news, one has to draw the conclusion that being a Klansman was just not evil enough for some of the attendees. Why settle for mere Klan robes when you can toss in Nazi salutes with your new black and brown shirted buddies? Is your Confederate flag no longer shocking enough? All you have to do is add a swastika, iron cross or some such and you are back in business. It should give us pause that the Ku Klux Klan was not the worst thing at that rally.
Let that sink in for a minute. A city in the United States of America was the scene of a Nazi parade. In a scene reminiscent of the Nuremberg Rally, hundreds of Neo Nazis marched with torches and chanted “Jews will not replace us!” They stood there in the torchlight giving Hitler salutes and shouting their vile depravity. During the day, they milled around the Confederate statue in a hodgepodge of Klan Robes, black and brown shirts. Confederate flags, various Nazi flags and fascist banners were waved aloft.
This November will mark the 79th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Not content with their execrable torchlit march, these damnable Nazis went to a synagogue. Armed men appeared outside while they marched by with their Nazi and Confederate flags shouting anti-Semetic abuse at the congregation trapped inside.
The United States of America is still a shining city upon a hill, the last best hope of free men and women. If we fall, there is nowhere else to go. Last Sunday our church, as I imagine most did, offered prayers for peace, even for the Nazis and Klansmen, a note of Christian charity beyond me.
I would like to respectfully disagree. This is not an occasion for praying for anything other than victory.. Seventy-three years ago, the forces of the free world hurled themselves at Normandy Beach, the start of the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny. President Roosevelt offered a prayer to the nation relevant today.
“…Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith….They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong….With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God
Amen.”
Both sides were intent on evil deeds. Clearly every action was sinful. Do you not believe that there is a spiritual war going on? Please look at the whole event, and those around the world.
No, both sides were not intent on “evil deeds” since, again, only ONE SIDE carried guns, pepper spray, and murdered someone disagreeing with them. But, you are so correct!! There is a spiritual war going on, BETWEEN THE IGNORANT PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN, FUNDAMENTALIST BIGOTS who want to impose their medieval world view on everyone, and those of us who believe in civil education, tolerance, and the United States Constitution (hey, fellow Christian folks, try reading The Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount instead of mouthing vindictive nonsense perpetrated by racist tribes wandering in the desert). What would Jesus do?
Thank you! Mr. Shannahan, we need more people like you to speak up! God bless you!
I must have missed the show that Kevin is talking about. Is this a new series, what network is it on, for it sound like a mesmerizing new soap opera. I’ve seen a lot of the news coverage of the recent tragedy, and it was not pretty. But the description given by Kevin sounds more fiction than truth. True, there were the skin heads and Nazis there, but so were the flag burning, statue destroying kids who were bent on destroying something, and most of them were white kids, who could not have possibly been hurt by the statue of a Confederate soldier. From what I’ve heard, the so-called Nazis had a permit to hold a demonstration, the other group did not. I would not have given any of them a permit, they are both troublemakers. Any one of those who destroyed the statue should have been arrested for destroying public property, for that is what they did. It was not up to them to take it upon themselves to pull it down, and they broke the law when they did so. When are we going to stop making excuses for people who destroy, burn, riot, loot, and create mayhem and start arresting them and throwing their butts in jail. I don’t approve of people going out and doing what they want and getting away with it. I am a strong supporter of police across this nation, but where were the police during this tragedy. it was tragic that a young woman was killed and I’m sure the man will will be punished for it just as he should be. But what about others that committed crimes? Do we just continue to let them get away with it? I, for one, am so tired of seeing all the mess that is happening. Start doing something to make people realize it is not o.k. to kill, burn, destroy, loot, and create fear in cities across our country. Those are my feelings, and if you think it was just the Nazis and skinheads causing the problems, you have blindfolded yourself and refuse to look at the full truth of what is happening in this country. Turn off CNN and MSNBC and try some other stations for a while. Read different newspapers, and try some that come closer to the truth than others.
Wow! I guess Fake Fox News has an avid viewer. “You have blindfolded yourself and refuse to look at the full truth of what is happening in this country.” The country I was raised in valued diversity, education, logic, and the search for understanding based on real accepted facts–not false beliefs masquerading as “facts” (Fox has done more to discredit the impartial communication of national and world information than the Soviet Pravda ever dreamed–thank you Australian R. Murdoch). Having watched many different outlets, the distortions and outright lies perpetuated by Fake Fox and other media of its ilk, and the large number of otherwise decent people mislead by cheap manipulation of their emotions of anger and fear, is very disheartening. By the way, your interesting but non-factual comment “the flag burning, statue destroying kids who were bent on destroying something” was not in Charlottesville, something you would know if you had “seen a lot of the news coverage of the recent tragedy” from sources other than the fake news sights you must enjoy. Sigh.
My reply to Mr Shannahan was to point out that there is trouble all over this country and it’s not just the skin heads and Nazis who are involved in destruction. I don’t like those who are involved in those organizations, at all, they are closed minded bigots. But he seems to be blind to all the other things that have happened across this country. Maybe you haven’t seen it either. There are city blocks burned to the ground. There has been looting of businesses and even homes. Shooting in the streets. Cars turned over. Traffic stopped by people unhappy I guess because their candidate didn’t win the presidential election. Now I think you can go to many television station and see these things happening, but it’s always just mentioned in brief, and not one of the news people seem to think that these doing the deeds should be held responsible, arrested, jailed, and tried for their crime.
Now there was a Confederate statue destroyed. I watched it, Someone climbed up, put a rope around it, climbed down, and the statue was pulled down from where it stood and was destroyed. Are you saying this didn’t happen? Then the young men and women, mostly white people except for a very few blacks that were visible. We got a pretty good view of who was there as we watch them act like 5 year old children having a temper tantrum. Kicking, spitting, hitting a statue. Why? Now this happened, did it not? I have already said that I don’t like skin heads, Nazis, KKK and the like. Finally I hear that 4 were arrested. During their interviews, 3 or the 4 admitted to being communists. Frankly I see that as being a problem in this country also. Do you want to live under communist rule. I don’t.
That is what I was pointing out in my reply. It was not a one side was bad, the other was not. Look closely and you will see two groups, both bent on destroying our country. Now you can say I’m wrong all day long, no problem. But if you think that, I would say, you are blind, and because you are blind, someone other than Nazis may take this land, our land, and turn it into something we don’t want. Open your eyes, please.
P.S. You are wrong about me only watching Fox, though I do watch some of their programs. I also watch other stations, and read a lot. Yes, I know I’ve missed some things in the last week due to illness, but I do know what I saw. Bad on both sides.
The statue was pulled down, illegally (I am not defending that action; personally I like pretty statues of funny men in uniforms riding their cute horses) of course, in North Carolina. Funky fake Fox keeps interspersing shots of the Charlottesville violence with the actions taking place in another state to confuse their somewhat gullible viewers into thinking the two actions were the same. Sigh. A wiser person than I said the media tells the truth about trivial stories so that they can lie convincingly about the the big important ones. Fox fake news is a master of deceit. The reason so many otherwise sane people like watching the cable show is that Fox does a masterly job of manipulating the viewer’s emotions of fear and anger, giving the audience a drug rush of adrenaline. Us versus them; the “left” is the enemy; simple ideas for a complex world. None of the drivel fake Fox spews into the airways is intended to heal our country or help solve the real problems facing us all. See what corporations donated to your candidate and check how they voted on legislation. As has been said, we have the best government money can buy, and the Republican majority is swimming in dough (as are many Democrats).
This thread is getting ridiculously overlong; my fault.
Look, if you read the non fake news, perhaps you heard that over twenty states (controlled by Republicans, no surprise there), have passed or trying to pass laws restricting freedom of assembly, because they are afraid of the growing protests against fearless leader. And the U.S. government, under the direction of the present leadership, has demanded IP: addresses of everyone (over 1.2 million) visiting an anti-Trump website. If this doesn’t concern you and you really think both sides in the political debate are equivalent, perhaps you better pay more attention to what’s happening that’s not being covered by fake Fox and friends.
“Look closely and you will see two groups, both bent on destroying our country.” I saw quite a large group of torch-bearing bigots advocating violence and ultimately murdering a young woman; I didn’t see the “other side” displaying that behavior in Charlottesville (by the way, a famous photo, from an incident several years ago no less, used by fake Fox, was proven to be doctored to show a violent attack committed by someone having nothing to do with the anti-Fascist groups protesting in Charlottesville, but Fox keeps displaying it as “evidence” of their violent intentions. Now THAT is fake news.
Sorry about your illness.
*Armed political factions are waging battles in the streets of American cities;” “violence aplenty at that rally committed by both sides.”
You must be seeing different reporting than I; only one side in Charlottesville clearly carried firearms, pepper spray, and spoke openly about their desire for violence. I applaud your dissociation from the “alt-right” and their Nazi agenda, but the falsehood about equivalency of both sides is, as they say, fake news perpetrated by fake right-wing media manipulating the ignorant and bigoted.
I have one question for you. One group had a permit to be there, the other group did not.
Why was the second group there? What was their intent when they confronted the other group? Why did they pull the statue down? Did they have the right to do that, or was it destruction of public property, by law? Did they come to Charlottesville with the intention of pulling the statue down?
See reply above. Again, North Carolina, not Charlottesville. Sheesh!
I often watch Fox Fake news and repeatedly catch them in outright lies. Why don’t you watch MSNBC for a week to see another point of view? Actually MSNBC and CNN are not nearly as entertaining as Fake Fox, but they seem more interested in journalism (a respectable profession until soiled by Fox), than shooting up my blood pressure. Walter Cronkite, the dean of American journalism and at one time the most respected and trusted man in public life, was thoroughly ashamed and disheartened by how Roger Ailes, the Republican party hack, used Fox to twist the attempted impartiality of journalism into political propaganda for the Republican party. I respect what legitimate journalism has done contributing to the defense of democracy around the world. Fox (“Fair and Balanced” Ha!) makes fools of its viewers by playing to their ignorance and biases.
Perhaps Not Waiting for Godot’s response wasn’t clear to folks who might be geographically challenged: Charlottesville is a city in Virginia. Virginia is a state. North Carolina is also a state. Charlottesville is not in North Carolina, it’s in north-central Virginia.
No reason to bring the Confederate flag into this because a few thugs in the alt-right choose to carry it their protest. Chances are those ppl just see it as racist tool not the true history behind it.
Great arficle, Kevin, and I truly enjoyed reading the prayer. We’ve had some strong men leading this country,
The Confederate flag is a flag of traitors and not of patriots to the United States of America. And Confederate monuments were part of an upswing in the early 1900s through the early 1950s in anti-Black rioting, lynching, and killing, just like flying the stars and bars is correlated with anti-Black hatred and violence.
Erecting monuments was an attempt to enshrine white supremacy in the public space (comparable to “White” and “Colored” water fountains, the latter of which some Whites used to provide water for their dogs). They were an attempt to reverse the trend of history, ameliorating the stigma of the South’s loss of power after the Civil War and reorganizing society to place Whites firmly back on top.
History doesn’t just happen. It’s made by the choices of individuals and groups, every day. Saying “these monuments have been around for decades” (as though they grew there, without any human agency) willfully ignores the very human actions that placed them there, along with the reasons why those people did so. The flag is a racist tool, no matter what. That’s just fact.
Yes, the Confederacy is history, and people should know their history: that’s what books are for, what museums are for, libraries and classrooms and education in general. But rallying around, preserving, and otherwise honoring a flag and monuments to a failed, morally repugnant “Lost Cause” is, these days, a morally-flawed attempt to exhume and revivify that history, bringing those failed, repugnant attitudes and concomitant actions into the present. We are better than that.
Thank you for saying this. My husband is retired Air Force, the son of a man who fought in World War II, and he is just heartsick over the president’s betrayal of all of the values our military has fought for over the years. I am the daughter of German war refugees, and I feel as if I am living over the nightmare of my grandparents as they saw the rise of Nazism in their country. We cannot compromise with evil and we dare not call it anything else.