Red flags flown with pride,
A symbol once wished peaceful,
Used to tear us apart;
A past in pieces,
We cannot allow to restart.
How dare they preach while
Waving rags so soaked in blood.

All right angles thrust,
While the alt-right angles
To crush any progress
To dust.
They cry, ‘Blood and Soil’?
This is not the future,
Our ancestors toiled
So tirelessly to try
To protect.
They are not the future,
Our best and brightest
Have left.
Let it always be said:
The color of our skin
Pales in comparison,
To the importance of
The character of our heart.

A tool and a blade,
Painted the color
Of cowardice,
Cannot hammer down the
Numbers of lives taken in the hopes
Of false equality.
That sickle sliced down too many already;
Don’t ignore fact
To fit your narrative,
When there are other ways
To combat class cruelty.

Twentieth century sin,
Coming back to condemn us.
Millions killed in the name
Of these ways, these ideologies…
With the hindsight of history,
How can they follow in these footsteps,
Formed by fiend and fool and filth?
Blood red flags on both sides
Screaming for regression,
Draped by a curtain they’re calling
‘Change.’

Fringe groups backed by hellish theories;
Superiority by birth
Or
Mediocrity by decree
Both bleeding crimson from
Gaping wounds inflicted by:
Fact, Logic, Compassion
Diversity, Progress, Passion
Division based on factors beyond individual control.
Sold souls for racial pride or material possession.
Pathetic hive mind driven by lies and ignorance.

Burn the red when not balanced by
Our White and Our Blue.
Stay true to American value.
Don’t succumb to the hatred beneath us –
The fear of the other,
The envy of the other,
The separation of the ‘other’;
He is me and we are everyone.
If you cannot get passed this
fear, this envy, this unnecessary separation?
If there is one rule to live by,
Beyond love of kin or of country,
Let it be this:
Treat others as you wish to be treated.

Jessie Gutierrez

A/N: Oh boy, this was a long one. =/ I don’t necessarily think it needs explaining, however, I do want to throw in a bit of background. I wrote this before Charlottesville, but was wary of posting it for rather obvious reasons. Clearly, I changed my mind. Given current events however, I feel it important to clarify something: in no way am I equating the vicious dogma and actions of the KKK and the Neo-nazis this weekend to those who rose to the occasion and met them head on. I don’t fully support Antifa and all that on the left; to be frank, I think their willingness to silence, (via protests, vandalism, and violence), anyone who has an opinion they don’t approve of is absolutely fucking terrifying, but when compared to the alt-right who wishes to not just silence, but exterminate those they don’t approve of?  Well, let’s just say one group is far more threatening than the other. Hint: I’m talking about the Nazis. Obviously, the Nazis are the worse. How the hell did we get to the point where that needs to be explicitly stated??