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On Medium, Carey McDonald posted questions for the white supremacists who gathered in Charlottesville: “If you’re a white person and you say you feel threatened, does that give you license to do . . . anything? What does it feel like to spit on black and brown people and raise a Nazi salute on Saturday, and then go back to your accounting job on Monday? Is it better than or not quite as good as tailgating the big game?” (August 15)
Kim Hampton of East of Midnight, responding to memes that mocked the tiki torches white supremacists in Charlottesville carried, wrote: “[It’s] funny to think about these people using cheap, outdoor accessories as a way to make a point, [but] they surrounded a black church on Friday night, friends. And the point would have been just as jarring had they used Bic lighters or regular candles. Tiki torches may look funny. This is no laughing matter.” (August 14)
On Facebook, the Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt posted, “If you didn’t know that the recurrent, relentless scourge facing this nation is white supremacy, now you know. If you didn’t know that our most recent UU General Assembly rightly focused on the structures and habits that support white supremacy, even in our own beloved faith tradition, now you know. If you didn’t know that for every visible Nazi and white supremacist, there have always been others waiting to emerge, now you know. And if you didn’t know that this is just the beginning of their attempts to spark a renewed reign of terror in the United States, now you know.” (August 13)
At The Tao of Tennessee, the Rev. Chris Buice said this is not a time for false peacemaking: “By temperament, I am a peacemaker not a polarizer. However, there are times when we need to ask ourselves the question made famous by an old labor organizing song, ‘Which side are you on?’” (August 16)
On Facebook, the Rev. Amy Shaw posted that, “In a rabid grizzly’s den, no one argues politics. If they are smart, they work together to kill the mindless monster threatening them all. If they refuse to work together, they are eaten one by one. The rabid animal is in front of you, carrying a tiki torch and waving a swastika flag. There are no spectator seats this time.” (August 16)
Also on Facebook, Jackie Cason wrote that, “Racism is the deep wound of the United States, one that cannot be stitched closed. The pain is great. I hope that one day the flesh of our nation will heal because we treat the wound properly and are able to eradicate the belief that skin color or language make a person’s value better or worse.” (August 12)
When President Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the Rev. Ken Beldon noted on Facebook Trump’s corrosion of the theological meaning of the word pardon: “The prayer ascribed to St. Francis speaks of meeting injury with pardon and that in pardoning we ourselves are pardoned. But here, ‘pardon’ from a man who says, ‘When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades.’” (July 21)
Kat Liu of Wizduum.net provided perspective on thriving in these challenging times: “We are in the midst of a great deal of turmoil, ecologically, socially, economically, and politically. . . .
It is ok to do things that bring you joy even in the midst of turmoil. In fact, that’s probably the only way we’re going to get thru this. Have faith that while the world needs you to act, it also needs you to care for yourself too and to enjoy the gift of your one precious life.” (August 1)
On Facebook, the Rev. Dr. Lynn Ungar shared a new poem about the unknowability of life’s path: “The path only unfolds behind us, / our steps themselves laying down the road. / You can look back and see the sign posts— / the ones you followed and the ones you missed— / but there are no markers for what lies ahead.” (July 28)