Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, issued an anti-hate message to his agency’s workforce on Friday urging them to “never be silent” in “the face of violence and intolerance.”
In a lengthy note titled “Hate is Not Easily Conquered,” Stewart spoke of the ongoing quest to complete the Constitution’s plan for “a more perfect Union,” even as the country has been wracked with tension following last weekend’s violence in Charlottesville, Va.
“In these moments, filled with suspicion towards our own neighbors, we must remember one thing: we are all Americans,” Stewart said.
In Charlottesville, white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups protested the removal of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. They were confronted by counter-protesters, and amid chaos a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters killing one woman and injuring 19 others.
Stewart, the 20th director of DIA who began serving in 2015 under President Obama, spoke of the importance of putting country before self-interest.
“We are one nation: diverse and passionate, but that’s what unites us,” he said. “Together we are on a journey to a more perfect union, through quarrels and crucibles that can only leave us stronger. It will take all of us to do this, fighting hatred, embracing our common beliefs, and putting our country before ourselves.”
Stewart, who is black and was born in Jamaica, also quoted Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address which called for a dedicated effort to “bind up the nation’s wounds.”
“As Abraham Lincoln said, ‘With malice toward none, with charity for all…let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds… [and] do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations,'” Stewart wrote.
Read’s Stewart’s entire message here.
