Charlottesville letters: echoes from the Kansas City Star

Trump's delayed Charlottesville condemnation may be a Band-Aid on a shotgun wound- headline quote ABCNews

Heather Heyer, 32, died as a result of a domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville, VA on August 13, 2017, a street shrine to her memory.

Kansas City Star: Although the news media tends to mischaracterize people who live in "Red" states and "Blue" states as somehow being homogoneous, what I'm finding is quite the opposite. In fact, the Trump "ilk*" are hearing voices of outrage coming from all states. Here are two letters from "Red State" readers of the Kansas City Star, in my "echo" series.



*I use the somewhat archaic word "ilk", in deference to the conservative pundit Bill Kristol. He feels like this particular "word" is only used by people who should know how to use a more suitable word.  Yet, to me, the word is three neat letters, making it suitable for Twitter, a social media platform used by me and my "ilk". 

Two short letters to the editor, published in the Kansas City Star:  

A new day: "When I learned about the Charlottesville rioting, a quote I recently read in the young adult book 'The Courage Test', by James Preller came to mind: 'America should be a place we continually make anew — every single day — by how we treat each other'.”  Julie Conn, Kansas City

Echo letter number 2:

It was inevitable: "Immediately after the election, I said out loud, 'Let the riots begin'. I was not advocating riots but forecasting the inevitability of unrest given President Donald Trump’s divisive campaign and alt-right ideology.While the White House is mired in disarray and scandal, incapable of working with an equally ineffective Congress, and the president toils to lower his golf handicap on 'working vacations', America is smoldering."

Moreover, writes the author, Hannifan:

"Our 'locked and loaded' president is intent on initiating international crises with Molotov cocktail hyperbole. Domestically, Trump has fostered powder kegs while daring his supporters to light the fuses. Fuse lit, white supremacist Trump supporters with Confederate flags and full battle gear wielded their fists, batons and cars on anti-hate counter protesters in Charlottesville. Not surprisingly, Trump’s response was disgraceful. For those too young to have participated in civil rights and other justice movements of the 1960s, the Trump era again calls for urgent, consistent, peaceful, loud opposition. The women’s and climate marches in Washington, D.C., earlier this year were a start, but it remains to be seen how fervently Americans coalesce to oust Trump, and return values and reason to the White House. I hope it’s before he adds more kindling to the smoldering fire." Mark Hannifan, Leawood