Virginia is for LOVERS - not Haters

     The 72nd Governor of Virginia, USA, a Democrat, Terry McAuliffe was in the news recently making the a speech that most Americans felt the President Trump should have made. One woman died and many were injured when car was deliberately driven at speed into a crowd of people protesting against hundreds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members who arrived in Charlottesville for what they described as their largest rally in decades to “take America back” - many wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ caps. (Two police monitoring the situation also died that day when their helicopter crashed.)    As Governor McAuliffe said: “all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today: Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.” The driver, from Ohio, had taken time off from work so he could attend the rally.
     But from President Trump, known for his quick reply tweets, nothing, no tweets, no comment. Much later in the day at a press conference about health care for veterans he finally made  statement with no mention of white nationalists, Neo Nazis or KKK: “The hate and the division must stop and must stop right now, We condemn…this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” pausing he emphasised “on many sides.” Visiting Charlottesville that day the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and Trump supporter replied: “remember it was White Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists.”
     I have never been to Charlottesville but I know fro follow travel writers that it is a beautiful leafy affluent city and home of learning including the prestigious University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson and one of the original Public Ivies and a UNESCO World Heritage Site attracting thousands of students, their families, visitors and tourists every year.
     Not long ago it was a pleasure to meet Governor McAuliffe and his team visiting Dublin to promote Virginia as a travel destination with the slogan ‘Virginia For Lovers’.  Impressed by his address that evening at Guinness Store I had to ask  if he would ever consider a run for President. I got the standard non-committal political reply: “the good people of Virginia elected me Governor and would want me to put my all into the job of governing”. I took that as a very possible ‘yes’, given that from November 2017 he will be Governor no longer since  he will not be eligible to run for re-election as Virginia is the only American state that prohibits its Governor from serving consecutive terms. Impressed as I was in Dublin I was doubly impressed on the way he handled the Charlottesville crisis.
     Following the press conference in New York where Trump 'went off the rails' as CNN put it, effectively defending white supremacists,  Governor McAuliffe released the following statement:
     “Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and white supremacists came to Charlottesville heavily armed, spewing hatred and looking for a fight. One of them murdered a young woman in an act of domestic terrorism, and two of our finest officers were killed in a tragic accident while serving to protect this community. This was not 'both sides.'
     “Our Commonwealth and nation are still reeling from one of the largest outpourings of hatred and violence we have experienced in recent history. We need real leadership, starting with our President.
     “Leaders from every corner of this nation and every partisan point of view have denounced these people and their acts in plain terms without hesitation or dissembling. The American people need the same from their President and we need it now.”

Governor Terry McAuliffe at the Gravity Bar in Dublin

     And he had the requisite Irish connections. Governor McAuliffe has maternal (Lonergan) and paternal family roots tracing back to Upper Church Co.Tipperary. I even met one of his Irish cousins at the Gravity Bar in Dublin. He and his wife Dorothy were married in 1988  and have five children. Terry was previously Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005 and co-chair of President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, and in 2008 was chair of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign.

Governor Terry McAuliffe, Pat Keenan, HOLIDAYezine and Rachel Beresford, Irish Daily Star