The Stukenberg Lab

8/14/2017

Dear Friends and Family,

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I thank you all for your thoughts and kind words. My family, lab members and I are safe. Things have calmed down and it was a day of reflecting with friends in Charlottesville. This is an amazing community and Virginians are proud and lovely people. We are a blue town surrounded by red but this is not an area with a large number of white supremacists. The people that invaded our town crawled out of holes from around the country and almost all Virginians are appalled.

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Our town was invaded by thousands of men intent on violence, intimidation and hate. They came very well armed, well organized and looking for a fight. I am sure you have all seen the pictures in the news and are struggling to understand what happened down here and more importantly how to squelch this blight. Unfortunately these white supremacists are a fringe but growing group that are emboldened by the recent election and as well as the events in Charlottesville. Don't fool yourself, they consider Charlottesville and the responses around the country a victory. Their leadership is not stupid and like the NRA they wrap themselves in the constitution to circumvent common sense and decency. I am compelled to document my experience as a Charlottesville resident so that you can be aware of any signs of a similar invasion spreading to your towns and cities. As someone who has watched this sore fester, grow and then explode in my city I offer my unsubstantiated thoughts. If you are interested read on, if not, no worries.

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The first question is why Charlottesville? To understand this ask yourself why Martin Luther King went to Selma. To the mind of the supremacists we represent what they are afraid the South could become-progressive, well educated and very inclusive. More importantly we consider ourselves the Berkeley of the South and they knew they would get a fight here and that is what they wanted. In addition, one of the organizers went to UVA and another lives in Charlottesville. I don’t know them, I don’t know anyone who does know them but I blame the organizers for bringing this upheaval to my town and America. 

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I looked up the definition of terrorism because I felt is was relevant:

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“the use of intentionally indiscriminateviolence as a means to createterror or fear, in order to achieve a political, religious or ideological aim.[1] It is used in this regard primarily to refer to violence against peacetimetargets or in war against non-combatants.[2] “ 

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I consider the organizers of this rally terrorists and suggest they should be placed in Guantanamo Bay (ok won’t happen but wouldn’t it be great). Please remember that almost all of the men for the rally arrived in Charlottesville with guns, lead pipes, and/or mace for a “peaceful protest”. They also targeted a city that they knew would react to their hateful message. Until I see clear evidence that the organizers actively campaigned to not bring weapons and that they were really promoting a peaceful protest then the evidence demonstrates that these organizers are terrorists. I sincerely thank all of our politicians and news reporters that have named them as such.

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The declared reason for this unrest is a statue of Robert E. Lee. It is actually a very nice equestrian statue in a small park in the center of the city. When I first moved from Boston to Charlottesville 17 years ago I felt slightly uncomfortable with the statue but in respect for the people that grew up here I pretty quickly learned to accept it as a quaint oddity of the South. Like us all, I am on a lifelong trip to deal with my own racism and I thank the city for an important lesson. The citizens of Charlottesville recently opened a healthy debate to move the statue to another park, which is not in the center of the city, as a reminder of our history without being a central focal point. A well-reasoned compromise, but the move was delayed by a court order for 6 months. The most important thing that I learned during this debate is that the statue was not built right after the civil war to honor the boys that died from Charlottesville, which was my original assumption, since such memorials are very common in the North. Instead the statue was built in the 1920’s as a sign of southern pride and as such it is a reflection of the white supremacist sentiment that dominated the south at that time. The fact that it is now being vehemently defended by the KKK and neo-Nazis has only confirmed this ugly fact. Such a symbol should not be the centerpiece of a city, but it can be used to educate us all about our shared past. 

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This was never about the statue. The statue provided a reason for white supremacists that are emboldened by growing hateful rhetoric to hold rallies designed to gather more crazies into their fold. The events of this weekend were actually the second rally over this statue. This is important because it seems to me that this first demonstration directly influenced decisions that led to some of the more unfortunate events of this weekend. The first rally was called by the KKK. Let me make it clear, I don’t know anyone that has heard about any previous KKK activities in my 17 years in Charlottesville. Everyone I know was shocked to learn that they still existed (or recently reformed). They obtained all the required permits for a peaceful protest and there was seemingly little for the community to do but bear it. Charlottesville and the University were much better prepared for this first and smaller rally. There was a vibrant debate whether to simply ignore the creeps, which became the universities stated plan, or to hold counter-demonstrations. I personally ignored them but many friends joined counter-demonstrations. Please appreciate that it was largely circulated that the KKK members would bring guns so this took significant resolve. The news largely confirmed my friend’s accounts that about 40-60 KKK idiots showed up in their robes and there were 400-800 counter protesters, mostly from Charlottesville. The counter protesters goal was to make so much noise that none of the KKK speeches could be heard and this worked amazingly well. There was no violence and it seemed at the time that the counter protesters won the day. The KKK members simply looked like the sad and pitiful people that they are. 

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There were three things about this first protest that relate to the events of the second. First, I am sure that this seeming victory by the counter protesters of the first protest was used to ignite and recruit white supremacists for the second rally. In fact, I think it this may have been the plan all along, to use a failed first protest as a rallying call for the second. Second, the seeming insignificance of this first protest led to many, including myself, to underestimate the second rally. Third, the police of Charlottesville allowed the two groups to remain in close proximity in this first rally and there were no significant consequences. In fact, this strategy allowed the counter protesters to win the day. This may or may not be the reason that the police followed a similar procedure for the second demonstration but it’s my favorite very unsubstantiated hypothesis. Last night I watched the Seattle police keeping protesters blocks away from a similar rally in a very impressive manner. Its easy to say that the Charlottesville police should have done this in hindsight but I also realize that the police presence needed to keep them apart was too large for our small city and the open access of the park did not enable this strategy. The Charlottesville police made mistakes but they police a small city with very low crime-they were simply overwhelmed by the force from both sides of this fight. In my dealings they have always been very respectful and professional, and the general trust of the Police force by the community is a major reason that Charlottesville remains a healthy and vibrant community.

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Most of us underestimated the force of the white supremacists that showed up last Friday. While it was clear from the news and emails from the university that the second protest last weekend would be bigger, it was not clear how big it would be, nor was it clear that the white supremacists would show up in their own makeshift riot gear, AK47s, lead-pipes, mace and looking for a fight. I saw license plates on pickups suggesting that came from as far as Texas and we all know about the murderer from Ohio. It was also not clear that they would march to UVAs Rotunda with torches the evening before the rally. This desecration really upset me. Fortunately, most of the students are not on campus but this shocked us all. There was also some confusion since the city worked hard to move the rally to a second park that was away from the central part of the city (actually closer to my house), however, right before the rally a federal court allowed the protest to be in emancipation park. This gave little time for the police to organize and placed the rally right in the heart of the city. Finally the idiots came to fight. A neighbor on the police force told me the fights began on Saturday morning at 7am and by the time of the rally everyone was already worked up on both sides. From what I can piece together there were both a large group of peaceful counter protesters and a second group of counter protesters that were willing to risk their lives to fight back. I know a number of the first group and thanked many of them today but I don’t know any of the second group. However I suspect these more heroic counter-protesters were also from the Charlottesville area. I want to make it clear that they were very brave as the show of guns by the idiots was real and I am surprised that no one was shot. 

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I did not go downtown on Saturday but took my family peach picking in the mountains. Perhaps I was a coward, but I felt that the creeps came here for a fight and to be on TV and I didn’t want to play into their hands. Yet, in hindsight, I should have gone. Even though I did not see the protest I heard the helicopters, saw pickups from around the country, saw police cars everywhere and I felt like my town was invaded. I have no reservations to state that they came to intimidate and cause harm to the people of my town for political reasons. This is by definition terrorism. We all saw the pictures and now the white supremacists have their audience. What happens in the next few days is important.

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We need to fight these idiots but we need to be smart. I will offer my two cents but I welcome ideas and input. First, we cannot afford to make this a fight between republicans and democrats, it must be right and wrong. The political divisions in America are too deep right now and this is too important. Most of the people that voted for Trump did not vote for fascism, and by placing the blame on Trump we are putting the 48% of Americans that voted for him in a defensive posture. This is a lose-lose and exactly what the jerks are hoping for. So just ignore Trump for a while…this is too important. Second, encourage and thank the republican leaders that stand up and condemn this behavior and have the guts to call it domestic terrorism. I am a diehard democrat but I also think that the republican leadership is the only group that can turn this around in an era where the mainline press and the democratic leadership only preach to converted and are ignored by half of America. If America can’t unite around this cause then we are really in trouble. Finally, please attend the growing number of rallies to support Charlottesville. We need to send a very clear message to these bozo’s that they are not welcome in 21st century America.

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I am very proud of the city, friends and colleagues at the Medical School and Hospital. We didn't want this, but it came to us anyways. When my wife Selina drove by the park this afternoon there was a big hand painted sign on the statue stating “Heather Heyer Park”. If I know my city that names gonna stick.