AFTER CHRISTCHURCH

by Dana Yost

Calling them

white nationalists

gives them a pass,

gives them a level of credibility

well above reality.

It’s a lame, tame

name and I say

no more of the same:

call them what they are:

racists,

segregationists,

fascists,

un-democratic,

un-American,

failed,

afraid,

war-losing,

truth-warping,

lockstepped

sleazes with triggers.

Klan,

Lindbergh,

Nazis,

style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">McVeigh,

Hannity,

LaPierre,

we set aside

our mourning

wreath

to lay

this on

you.

You don’t

get the

polite name.

You get

the blame.

Dana Yost was an award-winning daily newspaper editor and writer for 29 years. He is the author of five books, including a history of the rural Midwest in the 1940 era, another period of isolationist, anti-immigrant, white-supremacist attitudes and acts. He has lived his entire life in the rural Midwest.