One Year Later, Rep. Garrett Reflects on Charlottesville Protests

Statement

Leading into the weekend which marks the one-year anniversary of Charlottesville's deadly riots, Virginia's Fifth District Congressman Tom Garrett released the following statement:

"The polarizing events on August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville are symptomatic of that which ails our great Nation. Small groups of horrific extremists seek to co-opt the voices of the vast majority and those with political axes to grind and are all-too-often willing to characterize this extremism as the norm rather than an outlier. Sadly, the media seems overly eager to take actions of the few to impute the thoughts and beliefs of the many. Thankfully, the hate mongers who precipitated the tragedies of that day are indeed a tiny minority of our nation. We should keep this in mind as they will undoubtedly spew more hate in the coming months and years, and focus not on the droplets that divide us, but the oceans that unite us. Ignore the hate, love your American family, and discuss with respect, if often disagreement, the ideas upon which we should move forward together."

Last fall, Congressman Garrett introduced a bipartisan resolution in the House of Representatives that gained unanimous support from the entire Virginia delegation to condemn the violence that occurred in Charlottesville. The resolution honors the life of Heather Heyer and the lives of Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of the Virginia State Police, who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Read the full text of the resolution here.

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