To the Editor:

Since hearing about the recent violence in Charlottesville and seeing the images of hate and destruction surrounded by the tokens of white supremacy, I can’t stop thinking about this year’s Prairie City Independence Day parade. In the midst of this family-friendly community event, I was shocked and confused to see a Confederate Flag on the back of the Prairie City Hall float.

The Confederate Flag is a symbol of white supremacy. Full stop. The last few months of emboldened neo-Nazis and white nationalists waving stars and bars, while mosques are bombed, legal immigrants are threatened and deported, allies are stabbed and protesters are mowed down in cars, have underlined this fact. Why was there a Confederate Flag on the Prairie City Hall float?

The history of the Confederate Flag should not be forgotten. We must never forget the long history of slavery and genocide in our country. The legacy of institutionalized racism that continues to haunt and harm us today is part of a larger story, one that will continue to be told in cycles of violence and oppression, if we do not learn from, understand and act with responsibility for our history. But the symbols of racist evil in this country do not belong in places of honor: not at our celebrations, not in our community spaces and not under the auspices of our representatives, at the federal, state, county or city level.

As we mourn Charlottesville, we owe it to those harmed and fallen to be courageous, to meet hate with love, and to examine and confront the forces of extremism in our own communities. What is unacceptable in Charlottesville is unacceptable in Grant County, and the brutality and terror of white supremacy is unacceptable every last place we encounter it.

Morgan Michel

John Day