I, like many Americans are appalled and saddened by the recent tragedy in Charlottesville, VA on 8-12-17. Here is a brief synopsis of what occurred:

Three people were killed in the aftermath of Saturday’s “Unite The Right” rally, a congregation of various groups comprising the so-called alt right. A 32-year-old woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters, and two Virginia state troopers on duty died when their helicopter crashed on the outskirts on Charlottesville.

My husband and I were attending our state fair when I saw the news.  As I looked at passersby, I realized any one of them could have been this young woman who lost her life, or the state troopers who lost their lives as well.

This is from CNN: A quaint Virginia college town still wrestling with the legacy of slavery became the scene of deadly protests this weekend as white nationalists and other right-wing groups clashed with counter protesters over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a city park.

Men carrying Confederate flags stood side by side with the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and rifle-toting militia members in Charlottesville at a rally dubbed “Unite the Right.” Chanting “You will not replace us,” they exchanged blows and volleys of pepper spray with protesters opposed to their presence.

As police dispersed the crowds, a car plowed into counter protesters, killing one person and injuring 19 others. At least 15 people were also injured in skirmishes.

Our coward of a president couldn’t even blame the group responsible for this tragedy.  Here is his response:  “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Trump said during a short statement from his private golf club in New Jersey. “It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.” Donald Trump is the darling of the alt right movement. His hateful rhetoric has emboldened this segment of the population.

The President did not mention white nationalists and the alt-right movement in his remarks, and later called for a “study” of the “situation.”

Here is what I don’t understand.  Why are these groups so angry?  These alt-right groups carry Nazi and Confederate flags to their rallies.  They wear Make America Great Again hats, which was Donald Trump’s slogan during his campaign.  Their political group runs our country for the most part.  We have a Republican president; both the senate and House of Representatives are controlled by Republicans.  33 of our 50 governors are Republicans, and 32 of our 50 state legislations are Republican controlled. How can they say things are so bad?

Our current administration is hell bent and succeeding in undoing most of the legislation put into place during the Obama administration, rolling back clean air, clean water initiatives put into place to protect our planet, working on repealing Obamacare.

You got what you wanted Republicans, did you really think the rest of us would just stand aside?  People have a right to peacefully demonstrate in this country.  Trust me the South is not going to rise again. You lost civil war.  That was over in 1865.

My husband and I were talking the other day, and he believes that our citizens have just gotten too ignorant, and it’s going to take years for us to recover.  Are we going to recover?  We have a teenage son, and I hope like hell we can before it’s too late.