Letter: Antifa protesters not so innocent either

To the editor:
Arlene Violet’s “Growing Decency Deficit” (August 30-31) was a breath of fresh air. We are constantly bombarded with articles on how”the other guy” is causing all the problems. Witness the letter from the Women’s Resource Center (August 23) stating we should all love one another and stop the hate and violence. No argument there! We are then told the story of a 20-year-old mentally ill alt-right who was responsible for the carnage at Charlottesville. That statement is entirely accurate. The letter would have been more effective had it mentioned that prior to the fatal incident, Antifa threw Molotov cocktails, bags of excrement and bricks at the police and right wing demonstrators. And,yes, the right did react with violence of their own. There was no mention of the 65-year-old Antifa who took a high powered rifle to the Republican baseball practice a few weeks prior, shot several people and nearly killed the House Majority Whip. There was no mention of the disabled young woman in DC, canes kicked out, knocked to the ground or the elderly woman in Boston stunned by a vicious punch in the face, dragged until she fell, then kicked. Strange omission for a group out to stop violence, especially violence against women. Because of the failure to include both sides, I came away from this Women’s Resource Center letter feeling lectured at and an aura of hatred towards the right rather than feeling the love it purposely espoused.
The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates KKK membership in the U.S. at 6,000; Antifa at 200,000. We are all familiar with the hateful ideas and goals of the KKK. Now it’s time to learn about the international group, Antifa. They were thrown out of Europe years ago. Learn. Download free “Forming an Antifa Group: A Manual.” It states “Most activists (members of Antifa) are anarchists, although a few are Maoist or anti-state Marxists.” This and other of their writings are now saturating campuses. Read Dershowitz’s “Bigotry of Intersectionality” to get an idea of where they are headed. Maybe if we learn about and disavow all radical groups we can actually start being civil to one another and some semblance of decency will return to our daily lives.
Rochelle Howard Shatkin
418 Seaview Ave.

Warren