Friday Night in Charlottesville, Virginia white supremacist marching on the campus of University of Virginia around a statue of Thomas Jefferson, attacked counter protesters with their torches. Saturday morning people of the political left showed up in black and lavender shirts, helmets, shields and clubs to a park with a statue of Robert E Lee, and challenged the white supremacist to a fight. During a press conference Sunday white supremacist protest organizer Jason Kessler, was attacked with one enraged man punching the racist during a press conference and a woman tackling him as he fled. President Trump said “there’s blame on both sides”, implying there’s a question of which side is right and which side is wrong, which cause justified the violence and which cause did not justify the violence???

Battle lines form between white supremacist and counter protesters at the entrance to Emancipation Park

On the blame question of which side is right or wrong Senator Marco Rubio tweets words of wisdom to President Trump

Let’s hope President Trump listens to Senator Rubio

Senator Rubio’s words are 99% correct except when he says the violence is justified, Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that whether reactionary or pre-emptive, it’s never justified even for a just cause. As he said

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

President Trump there was no moral equivalence in Charlottesville between the white supremacist and the counter protestors. If it were possible for Martin Luther King Jr. to ignore all that he knew to be right  and  justify violence, he would justify the violence of the counter protestors against the hate on display in Charlottesville.