Following the ugly incident that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, an unruly mob took out its anger on a century-old statue in North Carolina. It is a perfect example of how tribal and identity politics are raging out of control in America, and how radicals on both sides will continue to ratchet up their tactics to match one another.
While the media spent its time connecting riots in Charlottesville and other places to the political right, the hard left continued to step up its tactics to promote social discord. A crowd of people in an “Emergency Durham Protest” marched down Durham’s Main Street, then made its way to the Durham County Courthouse.
Organizations like the “Triangle People’s Assembly, Workers World Party, Industrial Workers of the World, Democratic Socialists of America, and the Antifa movement,” all leftist, were at the rally.
One of the participants, Eva Panjwani of the Workers World Party Durham, said in an interview: “This is really an opportunity, this moment of Charlottesville, to see what side of history we are choosing to side with. This is not a call to make someone to feel guilty or ashamed. This is a call to say this is an ask from people of color to say which side are you on.” Panjwani added “We need to shun passive, white liberalism.”
The larger group was comprised of people demonstrating with various left-wing slogans such as a “No Trump, No KKK, No Racist USA” banner, pro-socialist Che Guevara shirts, and numerous odes to abolishing capitalism. One individual held a sign that said, “Cops and clan go hand in hand,” as the group marched past police officers.
The crowd gathered in front of the courthouse and decided to target a statue that was created in memoriam to “the boys who wore the gray.” That is, the North Carolina soldiers who fought for the Confederate Army in the Civil War. What followed was a scene reminiscent of the French Revolution.
The rage-filled protesters tore down the statue and proceeded to kick and desecrate it. The surging mass of people hooted and hollered as individuals took turns spitting on and “flipping off” the generic visage of a young Southern soldier.
The act of vandalism continued unabated, as authorities stood by and watched. Durham Police put out a statement saying that they did not interfere with the toppling because it happened on “county property, where county law enforcement officials were staffed.” In the aftermath, some of the protesters took pictures in front of the crumpled-up bronze statue that had been pulverized in the fall.
Targeting this statue was seemingly an odd choice. It portrayed no individual specifically and was erected as a tribute in 1924 to the young boys, by that time old men, who had donned the uniform of the failed Confederate rebellion. However, the attack was fitting as a mirror to the “alt-right” march that had taken place at the foot of a Gen. Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville. The individuals portrayed by the monuments were simply irrelevant. This isn’t a battle over ideas or the Confederacy’s place in American history, it’s sheer and mindless identity politics.
American towns and cities are now increasingly being besieged by agitators on both sides who flaunt the law, direct their hate toward fellow citizens, and openly attack the crucial principles at the heart of the American way of life.
The resounding message that these events send is that in 2017, it’s impossible for this country to accept people of different creeds and points of view. You are either on the “right side of history,” as President Barack Obama said, or you are on the wrong side. The narrative is increasingly join us, or be crushed.
Perhaps the protesters should pay more attention to what happened in our Civil War, which claimed more lives than all of our other wars combined. Perhaps they should study the leaders who, however imperfectly, tried to bind regions and people together to move on from a civil feud that pitted brother against brother and American against American. And perhaps they should have studied the people, like Lee and President Abraham Lincoln, who tried to piece the shattered puzzle of American nationhood back together. Alas, those concepts were lost in a sordid trampling of an old, barely noticed statue.
Is mob rule is here to stay? Probably. God’s people must live above the political side-taking, the emotions of revenge, the hot-headedness, violence-speak, and other unsavory reactions and understand these events from a prophetic point of view. Here is something to consider…
“At the same time anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine, but human. The centralizing of wealth and power; the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many; the combinations of the poorer classes for the defense of their interests and claims; the spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed; the world-wide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution—all are tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.” Education, page 228
Do not think that America will escape similar chaos seen at the time of the French Revolution. As both sides ratchet up the tension, each action stokes an opposite reaction. How long until guns will again be used to settle the score? America is at the boiling point, which could easily explode into violent clashes, civil war, race riots and other incendiary behavior. These chaotic developments, planned or spontaneous, lead to demands for a strongman, a dictator, to bring peace and order out of the upheaval. Are we watching the final collapse of the American republic?
Perhaps it would behoove us to consider the timeline a little bit. While it may not be connected, humanly speaking, the violence of our times follows in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, which has taken America to a new moral low. If a nation rejects the laws of heaven that easily, how can it claim God’s protection from violence and chaos? Has the restraining Holy Spirit been withdrawn? Have the angels holding back the winds of strife pulled back in order to allow more violence?
Source References
Please pray for India and for Sijo and his ministry in India. Rising persecution is creating stress on the Hindu nation, especially for Christians. The government enacts repressive laws against Christianity. Persecution is especially difficult in the north where there are killings and torture of Christians, the spread of anti-Christian propaganda. India apparently intends to abolish Christianity in India by 2020.