This weekend all eyes on Charlottesville, Virginia and Washington DC., as the very vocal US president remains silent while white nationalist, KKK members and bigots prepare to march in Washington DC and commemorate the 1 year anniversary of murder and racism in Charlottesville.
Wes Bellamy
The Washington Post is reporting, Wes Bellamy, 31, is a city councilor who helped push the city to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from a downtown park. The decision to banish the statue resulted in death threats and hate mail and, in part, is what led to the white supremacists deciding on Charlottesville as the location for their rally.
For now, that statue remains, caught in a legal limbo. But this is not the time to back down, Bellamy said as he sat at a table outside Mel’s Cafe in Charlottesville.
Wes Bellamy in front of one of the controversial statue.
“If we skirt around the issues, we’re not going to get anywhere. Let’s put it on the table. That’s what I think we’ve done in this community,” he said. “Just because it makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it.”
On Aug. 12 this year, Bellamy said, he wants people “to be out there and celebrate that we’re a year stronger.”
“We took a punch to the face, but we weren’t knocked out,” he said. “We’re going to win this fight. But we have to be resilient.”
WATCH:
