VA House Democratic Leader David Toscano: "Leadership in the Time of Trump, Turmoil and Tragedy"

On Wednesday night, thousands gathered with candles in hand for a peaceful and uplifting procession and vigil on U.Va.’s historic Lawn, to symbolically “take back” our university from the torch-carrying Neo-Nazis who invaded Thomas Jefferson’s space one week ago. Eight hours earlier, as many as 1,000 people squeezed into the historic Paramount Theatre in downtown Charlottesville to honor and celebrate Heather Heyer. Friday and Saturday, thousands more will gather to recognize and mourn two state troopers who died doing their jobs protecting the citizens of the Commonwealth.

The assault on American values embodied in the reprehensible “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville last weekend demands that we take stock not only of what it means to be an American, but also about what constitutes leadership in this country. White supremacists and nationalists descended on our progressive town from across the country, some with red “Make America Great” hats, many with helmets, batons, or shields, and more than a few in camouflage with guns and rifles. Their common denominator was hate for those who do not look like them, think like them, or worship like them.

They thought they could intimidate us, and other Americans in the process. They were wrong. They came to weaken us. They did not. And, with one cowardly act by a Ohio man using his car as a weapon of terror, they inflamed a nation that has grown all-too-accustomed to the rhetoric of hate and division. Their attacks left our city deeply shaken, but also strengthened and emboldened to confront the forces of evil and hate they represent.

And while white nationalists may feel encouraged, they are politically damaged. Almost every single elected leader in the country has condemned their actions in the strongest possible terms—except our President, who asserted that some of the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis were “good people” and insisted that counter-protestors were just as responsible for the violence as those who beat them with batons, and constructed homemade battering rams to split and injure their rivals.

Read more: http://bluevirginia.us/2017/08/va-house-democratic-leader-david-toscano-leadership-in-the-time-of-trump-turmoil-and-tragedy