To the editor:

Regarding the letter to the editor, “Reject hate and incivility toward everyone,” that appeared in the July 5 Alexandria Times, it’s stunning that Lee Ann Gardner is reminded of Nazism by the words “Repent, Resign or Relocate” superimposed on a poster photo of Kirstjen Nielsen or of the protest at Nielsen’s home.

Yet, she sees no fascism in Nielsen’s leadership of a U.S. agency that is pursuing a policy of separating children from their parents and holding those children in cages; or policies that send small children alone to court to decide their future with no legal representation. Gardner also sees a lack of civility in a t-shirt that says “Virginia is for haters.”

She seems to forget the small army of white supremacists and neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville last year hurling racist taunts, and the eventual killing of Heather Heyer and injuring of dozens of counter-protestors. Gardner seems to forget the importance of free speech in these most troubling of times, and the fundamental right to protest inhumane policies.

-Reid Maki, Alexandria