“Lives lost but not forgotten Heather, Jay, Berke’

What a horrific few days it has been.

My heart breaks for Charlottesville; the young woman who died while protesting the neo-Nazis, the KKK, and other white supremacists who came to her hometown to protect a hunk of metal that the duly elected city council had voted to remove; and also for the two state troopers who died while trying to protect both sides from each other, along with their First Amendment rights to to assemble peaceably, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

According to CNN:

“The marquee of the Paramount Theater, where the service will begin at 11 a.m. Wednesday, reads: “Lives lost but not forgotten Heather, Jay, Berke,” including the first names of the state troopers who were killed in a helicopter crash later Saturday.”

So how will we be sure not to forget? That’s where some truly remarkable journalism comes into play. Here are but a few examples.

Vice News on Monday, as the events were still unfolding and the rest of us were trying mightily to make sense of them, released a 22-minute video that everyone should watch. Here is the description of the video from Vice News:

“VICE News Tonight” correspondent Elle Reeve went behind the scenes with white nationalist leaders, including Christopher Cantwell, Robert Ray, David Duke, and Matthew Heimbach—as well as counterprotesters. VICE News Tonight also spoke with residents of Charlottesville, members of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Charlottesville Police.”

It is horrifying and absolutely must-watch journalism, here is the link: https://news.vice.com/story/vice-news-tonight-full-episode-charlottesville-race-and-terror

And did you see the picture of Charlottesville High School School Resource Officer  Darius Nash standing with dignity and authority, protecting the right of Nazis and white supremacists to protest? Here’s the story from Time behind that: http://time.com/4899668/charlottesville-virginia-protest-officer-kkk-photo/

And then there is Ryan Kelly, 30, who was on his last assignment as a news photographer for The Daily Progress before leaving to work as a digital and social media editor for a beer company. He captured the image that The Washington Post has dubbed “The photo from Charlottesville that will define this moment in American history.” Here’s the story from Columbia Journalism Review: https://www.cjr.org/first_person/charlottesville-protest-photographer-photo.php

And how about The Toledo Blade? There was one copy editor in the newsroom on Sunday, Tommy Gallagher. He was helping out on the photo desk when he realized the car that plowed into the crowd of counterprotesters, leaving one dead and more than a dozen injured, was from his hometown. Here’s how that local news operation pulled together some amazing coverage that provided readers with vital details as events were unfolding: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/toledo-blade-charlottesville.php

I mourn the deaths of Lieutenant H. Jay Cullen, of Midlothian, Va., Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates of Quinton, Va., and Heather D. Heyer, Charlottesville, Va. and pray for them and their families.

And I give thanks to the hard-working journalists out there who put names to their faces and told their stories, and are continuing to tell the stories that are helping us understand how this happened, so we can continue to work to prevent it from happening again.