The other day, I turned on the news and saw a mob of people hitting and kicking each other.
My first thought was, is this Venezuela?
Turns out it was [Charlottesville], Va.
As time went by, I saw more video of the battle and got snippets of reporting, which, after a day or so, led me to believe that the reporters were reporting — without all the facts — in the eternal “you heard/saw it here first” struggle.
This whole mess was the result of a scheduled removal of a Robert E. Lee statue at a local campus.
Lee has never been a hero of mine, but whether or not his statue is removed should not generate hate of the sort I observed.
The assault on a crowd of people by car injured many and killed one, driven by a person from another state who may have gone there to join in the battle. This was just insane and cannot be justified.
One group had a permit to gather there, but for some reason, they brought weapons “just in case.”
No guns, but ax handles and two-by-fours have been used many times to bloody effect.
Other people used signs, feet and fists to pummel their opponent, though in the melee I saw, how could anyone be sure who they were hitting?
This sort of thing cannot continue, and people need to stop overreacting to penny-ante issues.
This is not a reality show; it is reality.
We live in a dangerous world. Let’s not make it worse.
Robert W. Wilson,
Port Angeles