Alvarado letter: Charlottesville
A grille is supposed to be the beauty mark of a car, not an instrument of death. Freely speaking truth, standing for beliefs, witnessing in peaceful assembly; these are not crimes inviting ultimate justice. One dead, thirty-four injured, a thousand million suffering from the actions of one. Would-be truth-supremacists, I’m asking: How far will you go? Chalk in Charlottesville the outline of the dead and the dying. Step back and you’ll see it’s a noose coming for us all, a death wish for the promise of We The People. Today I’m going to stand in that square where free speech was turned into a license to kill and ask what I believe. For myself I pledge to use words that attract, not repel, and to think thoughts that unite rather than ones that slice and maim and fan the fires of our social cremation.
Mike Alvarado, Boise
This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Alvarado letter: Charlottesville."