by Dana Yost
Calling them
white nationalists
gives them a pass,
gives them a level of credibility
well above reality.
It’s a lame, tame
name and I say
no more of the same:
call them what they are:
racists,
segregationists,
fascists,
un-democratic,
un-American,
failed,
afraid,
war-losing,
truth-warping,
lockstepped
sleazes with triggers.
Klan,
Lindbergh,
Nazis,
McVeigh,
Hannity,
LaPierre,
we set aside
our mourning
wreath
to lay
this on
you.
You don’t
get the
polite name.
You get
the blame.
Dana Yost was an award-winning daily newspaper editor and writer for 29 years. He is the author of five books, including a history of the rural Midwest in the 1940 era, another period of isolationist, anti-immigrant, white-supremacist attitudes and acts. He has lived his entire life in the rural Midwest.