After being away for nine days on a vacation that included no media access (deliberately!), I came home to what may well be the top news story of this summer – Charlottesville.  Groups from the alt-X side of politics clashed on the streets.  This was followed by the real battle – the attempt by the media and the political establishment to shut down any voice not their own in discussing what had happened.

Trying to get the facts is almost impossible.  Who initiated the use of force?  In a riot of that size, how many arrests were made?  Judging from what is not being said, it seems fairly clear that the alt-left groups most likely started it, but who knows for sure.

One thing is certain however.  The idea of Left and Right is woefully inadequate to define today’s political scene.  The neo-Nazis were on the “Right” supposedly, but many pundits claim the “Left” groups are funded directly by a man who was himself a literal Nazi (albeit a young one.)  More telling, the Left groups are clearly socialist (or communist, if we use the definition of communism being “socialism in a hurry!”) in orientation, but few remember that Nazi stood for National Socialist German Workers Party.  In short, if anything of the media’s narrative is to be believed at all, the affair was an intra-family fight.  A fight between brothers, over who gets to shear the sheep.

Neither side believed in freedom.  Neither side believed in justice.  Neither side believed in equality.  Love for others was sorely lacking on both sides.  If freedom, justice and equality was wanted, there is an ideal that has led the way (irregardless of bumps along that way) throughout history.  It is found in the life of the man whose biography is found in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Unfortunately, his words were considered anathema by both groups in Charlottesville.  But if history shows anything, it shows that the rejection of that ideal will definitely not end in long-term peaceful community between folks of different views.

P.S.  Isn’t it ironic that the man most associated with Charlottesville claimed to esteem the central figure of the gospels, but openly admitted to picking and choosing what parts of that figure’s teachings he believed!  Can’t help but wonder – if Jefferson were alive today – would he see the connection between his remaking of Jesus in his own (Jefferson’s) image, and the tragedy that unfolded almost within sight of his home?

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