Candlelight vigil for the victims of the Charleston church shooting. Light Brigading/Flickr. Some rights reservedIn the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me, As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on….
– Fifth stanza, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe, November 1861
Dylann Roof is a self-confessed white supremacist, a racist and a murderer. On the night of 17 June, he walked into the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, sat in the pews for an hour watching the peaceful folk of that congregation lift their voices and their hearts to the Almighty, and then shot down nine of them in cold blood, including pastor and State Senator Clementa Pinckney. Before he pulled the trigger, he told his victims: “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country, and you have to go.” Then he scurried off into the night like the cowardly son-of-a-bitch he is.
