Episode 49 - The Charlottesville Newspeak If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element "Very fine people on both sides."  This Trump quote has become one of the most divisive in his entire Presidency.  Joe Biden listed this quote as the top reason he is running for President.  Just today, embattled Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler used this quote as logic for resistance.  The narrative being pushed and promoted to this day is that President Trump referred to white supremacists as fine people. Is it true?  It seems to be common knowledge that it is true.  Let's take a dive into the foundational facts surrounding the Charlottesville incident, and piece together the real story behind the rhetoric. The Charlottesville Incident may have happened on August 12th 2017, but it really started earlier that year in February.  It was in February that the Charlottesville City Council voted to remove a statue of Robert E Lee.  The Vice Mayor, and a couple city council members were offended by the presence of the statue, and they made it their mission to remove it.  This stance is not unique to the Charlottesville government.  The debate on statues is going on all over the South and our country in general. Robert E Lee was a Confederate Army General.  He commanded the Army of Northern Virginia.  And he won many battles in the American Civil War both offensively and defensively.  Do you know where he was born?  He was born in Virginia.  He died in Virginia.  And he led the Army of Northern Virginia in the Civil War.  Charlottesville is located smack dab in the middle of territory Robert E Lee called home, and there were tens of thousands like him in Virginia in his day. Now, I need you to explore the concept of perspective for a moment.  I'm from Washington State.  Born and bread Washingtonian.  I could give two shits about Civil War era heritage.  How about you?  Where are you from?  Do you care much about individuals that lived through the Civil War?  Probably not.  However, when you are from an area where slavery occurred, and great legendary battles were waged, you are far more likely to care about these cultural flash points .... You very much care about the individuals that shared your land.  Culture is born from history and tradition.  My point is that myself in Washington State or maybe you in your state, we do not have an understanding of the depth of connection to culture these local folks have. So let's try to keep this local to Charlottesville, because that is where the event occurred, and the local culture is the foundation for the incident.   So over the next few months the statue became a political football to toss around both locally, state-wide, and nationally.  A lawsuit was filed against the Charlottesville City Council, and in May was the first confrontation between people who were for and against the removal of the Robert E Lee statue.  This is where it becomes clear that locally in Charlottesville this battle isn't just about the statue of Robert E Lee, at its base it is about a culture shift in Charlottesville.  In a broader context, this battle over a statue was just another object in a shift in local power structure.  For example, Charlottesville was designated a sanctuary city for undocumented migrants. Ok, at this point I feel like I might get lost down a rabbit hole of local politics, and investigation of individual characters.  This snapshot should show that a broad number of diverse people in the Charlottesville local area have an interest in the statue.  To see it remain, and to take it down.  The May incident was a primer for the August incident.  In May, there was a small skirmish between protesters of the removal, and counter protesters.  It is