As a result of a lawsuit against the Charlottesville City Council, that planned to take down the statue of General Robert E. Lee, the judge came out with the following statement: “While some people obviously see Lee and Jackson as symbols of white supremacy, others see them as brilliant military tacticians or complex leaders in a difficult time.”
Having studied the history of my adopted country and because I place myself in the second camp, it does not mean I am a white supremacist. I believe racism is ignorant whether you are a member of the Ku Klux Can or a prejudiced minister. We know that there were members of both sides, the Nazis and Antifa members, who had turned up in Charlottesville to incite violence. President Trump got chastised for saying there were, “very fine people” on both sides.
So, have you heard of Christian Yingling? Probably not. Christian Yingling, the commanding officer of the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia, was one of those “very fine people” in Charlottesville, heading up the 32 militia members who came to form a unit with the mission of “defending free speech.” He criticized the Unite the Right rally, saying it represented the most extreme end of the political spectrum. Yingling said they had hoped to tamp down aggression on all sides so that people could express their views freely, no matter how offensive they were.
Yingling said he abhorred violence and racism but argued it was vital to defend the right to peaceful free speech. “The first amendment allows you to say anything you want as long as you do it in a peaceful manner,” he said. “When people start putting their hands on each other, though, that’s where our militia draws the line.”
