Dear Mr. President:

I don’t know how else to say this: Your responses to the events in Charlottesville stun even those of us who already believe you to be a racist.

I’ll be the first to admit that we have a complicated history of race relations and slavery. I used to live in Manassas Virginia, site of the first major battle of the Civil War. The National Park Service manages the site of both battles (the first in 1861 and the second in 1862). There is a statue of Confederate General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson on the battlefield site.

And while the Civil War ended in 1865, even today we have citizens who believe the “South will rise again.” They’ve gone by many names: The Ku Klux Klan, White Supremacists, White Nationalists, etc. In 2008 and 2012 by popular and electoral votes we selected President Barack Obama as our 44th President. This so enraged your racist groups that they insisted that the United States belonged to White People. They felt that President Obama’s election betrayed who we were and what we stood for. You participated in this by advancing the false belief that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States and therefore wasn’t eligible to lead our nation. You abandoned this only when you saw an opportunity to attack Hillary Clinton by falsely accusing her of starting the birther movement.

When you began your Presidential run, these same racists embraced you and you have been loath to recognize their damage to our nation. Even after the horrific events in Charlottesville (including the deaths of Lt. H. Jay Cullen, Trooper Berke M. M. Bates, and Heather Heyer) you continue to insist that there was blame on both sides.

Your advisor Steve Bannon coined the term “alt right” as an umbrella term for these what nationalists groups. Your response? You made up the term “alt left” in a desperate attempt at creating a false equality.

Yeah, there isn’t. There are not, as you said, “very fine people on both sides.” There are no very fine people who advocate hate and violence toward people of color and Jews. And while we’re on the subject, when they chanted “Jews will not replace us!” they were talking about your daughter and son-in-law.

OK, cards on the table: I’ve never accused you of being courageous or willing to do the right thing even if it costs you. But your unwillingness to stand up to these racists amazes even me. I understand that support from thugs like David Duke and Richard Spencer make you feel better about yourself but it horrifies the rest of us. You’re already losing support from those who thought you would be good for business. Fortunately the alt right, while loud, is not large. Your decision to ignore the rest of us to fawn over then will only further diminish your popularity.

PS: You still haven’t called me.