The President has been much criticized for his comments about “both sides” in his remarks about this month’s tragedy in Charlottesville. But let’s think a bit about his assertion that there were “some very fine people on both sides.” Was he perhaps right about that?
A Timely Quote
When I was still in college I remember hearing, and quoting, the following statement by American historian J.T. Adams (1878-1949), although it has also been attributed to various people, including Robert Louis Stevenson:
I thought that statement was true in the 1950s—and I still do.
Adams’s pithy words are important for us especially in our relationships with the people closest to us—at home, school, church, and community.
But are they also applicable to all people, perhaps without exception.
A Time to Reflect
We are all beset by the tendency to condemn those we disagree with—and we often do that from a position of moral superiority or self-righteousness. Further, the stronger a fundamentalist (on the right or the left) one is, the stronger their certainty becomes.
Consider just one example from the far right. “The Wilkow Majority” is a regular program on the Patriot channel of Sirius XM satellite radio. It has been hosted by Andrew Wilkow since 2006.
At the end of each segment of his provocative program, Wilkow (b. 1972) proclaims, “We’re right! They’re wrong! End of story!”
What arrogance!
But, to be fair, there are some on the political/theological left who are similarly arrogant, even though they might not express that arrogance so blatantly.
Regardless of our theological or political position on issues, each of us needs to take time to reflect upon our own culpability. It is important to acknowledge the bad we find within ourselves as well as upon the good we see in others—even in those with whom we strongly disagree.
A Time to Resist
So DJT was probably right when he
said that there were “some very fine people on
both sides.” That was probably true in
Charlottesville earlier this month as well as in the Civil War—and also in the
Second World War.
General Robert E. Lee was a good and honorable man in
many ways—but so were many of the men who fought for Germany or for Japan in
WWII. Lee was not a demon, and neither were most of the Germans and Japanese
who fought against the Allies.
There is good in the worst of us and bad in the best of
us. But that certainly doesn’t mean that good people don’t sometimes do bad
things, terribly bad things.
That was certainly the case with Lee, who was the
leading general of the Confederate States Army that killed over 400,000 Union
soldiers.
Those killed on both sides may have been Americans, but
some were citizens of the United States of America and others had become
citizens of the Confederate States of America—an alt-nation with its own
constitution and president.
The CSA fought against and sought to defeat the USA as
much as the Germans and Japanese did in the 1940s.
The basic problem is what people do,
not whether or not they are “good people.” Whenever people, good or not, do bad
things, they need to be opposed. Thus, there was ample reason for people, good
and bad, to fight against Lee and his soldiers during the Civil War.
Accordingly, even if there were some “very
fine people” among the alt-right white supremacists and KKK members who marched
in Charlottesville, there was/is ample reason to resist them resolutely and to
denounce them soundly for fanning the flames of racism.
