Continue To Stand Against Racism, Hatred - And Not Just For Heather Heyer

Heather Heyer, just 32 years old, was a young woman embarking on what should be the rest of her life. She was, by all accounts, someone who believed in standing up for the voiceless, and happened to be in Charlottesville on Saturday, August 12, when a grey Dodge Challenger plowed through a mass of protesters, sending people racing for their lives and flying through the air as they were struck.

That was Heather Heyer's last stand, and while her death was 100 percent senseless, done seemingly out of hatred for what the counter-protesters were doing on Saturday as white nationalists protested—peacefully, for the moment—the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, her death did mean something.

It would be easy for all of us to look at the horrific way in which her life ended and say that she became a victim, and in the most obvious way, she did become a victim. However, she was at that rally in Charlottesville to help her voice be heard. She didn't want to see violence, or hatred, or racism, or anything else that might go along with that. "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention," was what her Facebook cover photo read.

She wanted to have people pay attention to the injustices in the world around us; she wanted justice and equality not just for white Americans, but for everyone around because it was the right thing to do. Now, her grieving mom wants her daughter's death to be a "rallying cry" for justice, fairness, compassion, and equality.

Her boss, Alfred Wilson of the Miller Law Group, said that Heyer's intent in attending the rally was to make it painfully clear to the neo-Nazis and supremacists that were there that there was no place for hateful rhetoric in Charlottesville.

"A big thing that bothered Heather was this whole past election,” he said. “She would literally sit in the office and cry at times because she was worried about what was going to happen to the country."

Now, the country continues to be gripped by anger by President Trump's lack of forceful comment condemning supremacists or white nationalists, as well as his apparent hypocrisy in telling the nation to "rise above the hate," given his current track record of attempting to claw back civil rights for various groups in the United States. Thus far, these range from the Muslim immigration ban that has been attempted in various forms, the ban on transgender individuals both in and joining the military, and the removal of Title IX protections for those children and youth that do identify as transgender.

So now, a young woman and two police officers have died as a result of the spread of hateful rhetoric in various regions throughout the United States, and a grieving mom wants her daughter's death to have greater meaning. No mom should outlive their child; what do we do?

We need to actually speak up when we witness racist vitriol. People who are racists or supremacists need everyone—not just a leader who has been ineffective and ineffectual since he stepped into the White House January 20, 2017—to tell people who are behaving in this way to stop, and immediately. The more voices that are heard against this sort of violent and horrific behavior, the bigger the message that gets conveyed to the perpetrators. We can't just turn away from that sort of behavior and violence and say that someone else will deal with it because there really isn't anyone.

So yes, as a tribute to Heather Heyer and the police officers that were killed, we should find some sort of way to honor her by standing up to bullying and telling everyone that this sort of hatred is not acceptable. But to say that we are doing that for her needs to change. We need to own our responsibilities in trying to eliminate racist vitriol from our neighborhoods, our stores, and our schools, among other locations, and work together to put an end to hatred, for everyone.