In their zeal to drive President Donald J. Trump from office by distorting what he actually said immediately following the riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, the skews media have apparently chosen to avoid seeking the answers to far more important and newsworthy questions.
Had the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the Commonwealth of Virginia properly planned and prepared for the event and the reasonably foreseeable civil disturbance that occurred? Were the Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and Virginia public safety departments and offices of emergency management ready? In short, could the events leading to three deaths and numerous injuries and arrests have been avoided if Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the Commonwealth had been better prepared?
Lest readers think of these as nitpicky questions asked by this Monday morning third-string (on a good day) quarterback in Roadkill, Idaho, we would point out they were a part of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s statement on August 14, 2017.
We note that in his statement Governor McAuliffe directed his staff to hand-pick commission members “…from community organizations, faith leaders, and law enforcement to make actionable recommendations for executive and legislative solutions to advance our mission of reconciliation, unity, and public safety.”
OpenCdA would have preferred to see Governor McAuliffe place a greater emphasis on “public safety” rather than the feel-good social justice empty talk, but McAuliffe’s gubernatorial priorities are entirely consistent with his personal and political biases and prejudices. Events that produce martyrs (real or manufactured after the fact) have more propaganda value than events that go off without a hitch.
Governor McAuliffe’s commission members are not social justice warriors. Their duty is to provide the Commonwealth with recommendations to ensure the safety and preserve the freedoms of all the people who reside in and visit the Commonwealth.
We also hope that sooner rather than later, our free press is reminded that its duty and responsibility is to timely, accurately, and completely report the news, not skew it to fit the political and social whims of the media owners and the politicians whom they try to enslave. That duty and responsibility seems to have been lost in the noise.
On August 21, 2017, the Congressional Research Service provided members of Congress with a very well-written, timely, and informative report entitled Domestic Terrorism: An Overview.
