It was a weekend where hate tried to over power civility and love, but as we saw in Washington, D.C. Sunday when a group of haters took to the street and it was no contest.
As a nation that has seen prejudice since our very first beginnings in 1776. And even before that. Our documents proclaim all men are created equal, but as a society, not all of us have lived that.
Sunday, Washington, D.C. braced for a demonstration by so-called white nationalists. Their group was met by thousands of counter protestors.The confrontation did not turn violent, but hate was in the air.
Those spewing thoughts of white supremacy gathered in a much less-than-expected number on the first anniversary of the Charlottesville, Virginia, demonstration where hate filled the air and death was on the ground.
It was reminiscent of a 1999 Ku Kux Klan rally held in Cleveland where then-Mayor Michael White allowed the Klan to march within their first Amendment rights, but inside a fenced area.
Counter protestors using their first Amendment rights protested, but the two groups could not physically confront each other.
It remained peaceful.
The same could not be said for a 1977 Klan rally on the steps of the Ohio Statehouse where counter protestors scuffled with stick-wielding Klansmen.
At the time, I was a Columbus television reporter. We journalists were caught in the middle when Klan and the counter protestors met.
Some of us were hit with the sticks wielded by the Klansmen. I pulled a bleeding news photographer to safety after he was struck in the head.
In all these scenes, hate was the center of the white supremacy and white nationalists demonstrations.
We are in challenging times, where words from the President have been fuel for those who are more open in preaching their hate. Hate is the fuel. Hate and racism cut deeply into the fragile racial harmony in the United States.
Also there is fear, fear of a changing racial demographic in this country.
As Martin Luther King said, "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Government leadership at all levels must set tones of equality, and love, and respect, and tolerance.
Such ideals must be spoken with strength and conviction.
It is not only government leaders' jobs, but the jobs of all of us.
Fairness and equality must be continually spoken in our workplaces and everywhere. Even across our backyard fences with neighbors next door, around the corner, and around the country.