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Toledo’s biggest newspaper in August, lambasted the
University of Toledo for restricting the distribution of
materials by the white supremacist group, Identity Europe,
which was also in attendance at Charlottesville with the
other groups that helped incite not just violence, but
violence that ended up in the death of a person. The mere
existence of these groups serves to instill hatred, incite
violence, and spread an Anti-American attitude of separatism
and ethno-nationalism. These groups are hiding behind the 1st
Amendment to cause harm and fear to a segment of our
population. The U.S. Constitution has limits around
infringing on the safety and well-being of American
citizens.
Free speech does not apply to words that incite violence,
motivate people to inflict harm or violently intimidate
people. During times of crisis and contention, it is
important that we notice who is in the room and what is
said. It is easy to march for inclusionary policies,
diversity and acceptance during annual summer festivals, but
harder to take a stand against hateful speech and hateful
public symbols, and work to protect people that these acts
intend to attack.
In Toledo, I saw many candidates for public offices waving
and marching at festivals and being close-lipped about
Charlottesville. This should cause concern to not just black
folks and the Jewish communities, but to those communities
they march for when a societal challenge or crisis arises.
We have heard mayoral candidate Tom Waniewksi somehow equate
stolen flower pots being replaced as important as black
lives being protected in early summer with his infamous “If
a woman has a flower pot stolen that is as much of a crime
as someone shot in the central city” during his speech to
the Toledo Tea Party. Let’s believe who Tom says he is and
not give him the benefit of the doubt, because our black
lives can’t take that risk. Wade Kapszukiewicz’s silence on
Charlottesville is disturbing because he has campaigned on
being a moderate politician. We do know that Martin Luther
King, Jr’s biggest criticism was for the complacency of the
white moderate “who is more
devoted to order than to justice, who prefers a negative
peace which is an absence of tension to a positive peace
which is the presence of justice.”
If the leaders we elect can’t protect us in times of our
greatest need, we shouldn’t expect them to make impactful
change when times are better.
The U.S. Constitution is a breathing and living document
that has continuously advanced the causes of social justice
and change when this nation needed a recalibration of
democracy and freedom. We expect the people who are sworn to
uphold its statutes, to do so in the creation of a more
perfect union that allows people to embrace diversity and
inclusion, not bigotry and separatism. We must continue to
push for progress from these institutions as well as from
ourselves. We should understand that the limits of the
Constitution are only dictated by our limits on love,
acceptance, and compassion; therefore hate has
constitutional limits.
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