By BARBARA HOWARD

I am so sick of all the moral hypocrisy coming out of the pores of people without memories of the evil motives of the Left as they condemn the Right.

President Trump called both sides out as being responsible for the violence in Charlottesville. Have we so conveniently forgotten about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) man who killed five policemen in Dallas? How about the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise and other Republicans at a practice baseball game? Or how about BLM protest marches where they shouted “Pigs in a blanket; Fry ‘em like bacon?”

Where was all the outrage when thugs burned and looted stores and small businesses in Ferguson or when thugs set fires in protest at Berkeley? Romans 3:23 (KJV) says “We have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Yes, racism and bigotry should be unequivocally condemned on all sides. Members of the KKK, Neo-Nazis and all white supremacists should be condemned for their hate. But so should radical Socialists, Anarchists and Leftists, of all races, creeds and colors, who hate people because they disagree politically or religiously with the Right. I grew up in segregated Alabama and Georgia, afraid of the KKK, who, by the way, were all Democrats. I know black folk now who believe that the KKK is a Republican construct, because they don’t know their history. The KKK was created by the Democratic Party and was the terrorist arm of the Party – created to “keep us Negroes/Niggers in our place.” While David Duke is the most well-known member of the KKK today and is a Republican, many members are still Liberal Democrats. But the Democrats found a way beginning back in the 60s, to keep us on their plantation. How? By creating a narrative that blamed racism on Republicans/Conservatives and members on the Right, now defined as the “Alt-Right.”

I know the hatred first-hand. It’s been in my face forever – first from white Democrats and now from black Democrats (since I became a Republican). These people who always talk about tolerance are the most intolerant people I’ve come to know.

It was Barack Obama, our so-called “First Black President,” who commanded his followers to “get in their face” when they confronted Republicans or even Democrats who refused to vote for him. It is the modusoperandi of Democrats to demand that talk-show hosts be fired if they dare say anything the Left doesn’t like. Yet they hurl insults at the Right with impunity.
President Trump is being called on the carpet for “giving shelter” to the white supremacists by assigning blame to both sides – the Alt-Right and the Alt-Left. But he was right. I watched the videos of the violence and I saw people who came to Charlottesville to protest the white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and KKKs, throw the first stone. They came ready to confront them with violence and the KKKs came ready to defend with violence. Yet the night before when only the white supremacists showed up to march, there was no violence.

Let me make myself abundantly clear – I don’t like white supremacists, but I recognize they have a First Amendment Right just as I have.

Salman Rushdie said, “The First Amendment defends all forms of speech including hate speech, which is why groups like the Ku Klux Klan are allowed to utter their poisonous remarks”.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall said, “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” Many people condemned President Trump instead of analyzing what happened in Virginia. There are moral issues which need to be discussed in rational terms. I may not like that Robert E. Lee stood for slavery, but I disagree that we need to destroy all the statues representing the Confederate states. This is American history, like it or not.

I met a young white man and his wife in Huntsville, Alabama, who were very kind to me when my mother passed and I needed her house repaired. They went above and beyond what they needed to do for me, even more than the black man who had worked for her for years. This white man flew a Confederate flag in front of his house. If I had only defined him by his Confederate flag, I would have missed out on his goodness and his caring for me and my family.

We must condemn all hate, but as Christians, we must see people for their goodness and forgive any of their transgressions.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”