In the past months, I have been having great difficulty with a trend I have seen in my local political community, and the national community as well. Conservatives have been, in my humble opinion, too ready to align themselves with folks in the Alt-Right who have in turn associated themselves with white supremacists. I get the frustration that led to this, really I do. I too am disgusted when Antifa tears up our city, shuts down our freeways and makes our downtown unsafe for decent citizens to use. I have friends who own businesses who have to pay when their windows get broken by them or just lose business because once again our mayor has told our police to stand down and let “peaceful protests” turn into full blown riots. I get it. But I also get why the Mayor of Boston is asking people to stay away from the Common today if they want to counter-protest the Free Speech rally. I think he is acting in the best interests of his city and her citizens. When Antifa and Alt-Right contingents clash violence ensues, this really should not come as a shock after the scenes that have played themselves out here in the PNW or across the country. Both sides come at one another with intent to commit violence and anyone caught in the middle pays the price.

What we saw at Charlottesville was horrific, for so many reasons. For one I never thought I would see hundreds of white supremacists with tiki torches marching through streets anywhere in my country. That was enough to make my blood boil. Add to that the stupidity of the counter-protesters trying to fight violence with violence-something that never works-and it was mayhem.