Disgusting.
Cruel.
Vicious.
Intolerant.
Immoral.
Heartbreaking.
Again and again I’ve tried to find words adequate to describe actions like the ones that took place in Charlottesville today, and again and again the English language comes up short.
Acts like these have taken place so many times over the past three and a half hellish years that I cannot keep track, my brain cannot comprehend the overwhelming magnitude of what has happened.
Yet again, the winning side of the war decides, for some inexplicable reason, to beat up on the losing side.
Yet again, the strong, powerful establishment decides to torment the rebels, the dissenters, the underdogs, all while preposterously claiming that they are somehow disadvantaged and oppressed.
One meager statue representing human diversity, representing dissent, representing being different from the norm, amidst a sea of essentially identical statues all representing mindless conformity, deemed unacceptable in their eyes.
Having relentlessly criticized my clothes, my hair, my shoes, my socks, ridiculed the way that I speak, bullied me because I like different music and movies and books than they do, none of that was enough for them. My special interest – the one thing that makes my life worth living – had to be destroyed too, the public spaces of our country redesigned to ensure that I receive the message that I am hated, that I am unacceptable, that I am sick and deviant, that I am not welcome to exist.
I am deemed unworthy of even a single work of public art making me feel accepted, making me feel included.
Yet again my body, mind, and soul are consumed by agonizing, unbearable pain.
There are no words that can fully convey how much I hate the people – and I use that word loosely – who did this.
They do not hold the moral high ground.
They forfeited any claim to it a long time ago.
They deserve the most severe punishment possible.
But even that would not be enough, because no punishment could possibly be as severe as the punishment that they have inflicted on me – an innocent person who has done nothing wrong – through their actions.