On Saturday, April 21, the Nazi Party plans to build upon their Charlottesville operation, by rallying in Newnan, a community just southwest of Atlanta, less than an hour from where I live.  Even though this group is against everything that America, capitalism and Christianity stand for, forcibly attacking them would play into the hands of this odious group.

During World War II, my grandfather served this country in the war against the Nazis, in the European Theater. He certainly didn’t serve our country so that these National Socialists could prevail, but he also didn’t fight so free speech can be restricted in this country.

National Socialists have falsely claimed to be America’s ally. I remember seeing a picture in my history textbook of a brown-uniformed man wearing a swastika giving a Heil Hitler salute next to a painting of George Washington, even though our first president fought against tyranny in the Revolutionary War.

How quickly we forget the Americans slaughtered by Nazis in WWII. If you read “An Army at Dawn,” you’d learn how such Stormtroopers would kill Americans by feigning surrender.  During the Battle of the Bulge, they even executed P.O.W.s. Their scientists conducted cruel experiments on downed U.S. fliers. Yet future Sen. Joe McCarthy was quick to defend S.S. Col. Joachim Peiper, the perpetrator of the worst war crime, the Malmedy massacre where a U.S. truck convoy was disarmed and then machine-gunned, leaving barely a survivor.

In our country with freedom and equality of opportunity for all, “white supremacy” has no place. Our free market capitalist system is the polar opposite of the government-ruled economy of the National Socialist Party.  Their war crimes and propaganda are about as anti-Christian as one can be, the inverse of the Ten Commandments and teachings of Jesus Christ, and this country’s Judeo-Christian heritage. And I commend our GOP Georgia Congressman Drew Ferguson, who also represents them in his district, for standing up to oppose them as well.

But what should you do if you’re in Newnan, or when the Nazis come to your community to spread their unpatriotic message?

Here’s what you shouldn’t do: Attack them. I suspect some so-called “Antifa” people with sketchy motives are sure to assault them, which gives the Nazis everything they want. Ben Shapiro wants someone to punch him, and conveniently on camera. It gives this group, which otherwise wouldn’t appeal to most folks, the oxygen they crave: the overreaction. It helps the Nazi justify his actions, the same way his ancestors used the Reichstag Fire and street battles to justify his crackdown, and later his Holocaust.

Here’s what you could do. Show up to the counter-rally, but not to attack. Let those who would answer violence with violence know that their actions are counterproductive to opposing fascism. Use your signs to expose the truth about Nazis. Let your kids and friends know where these Nazis really stand, in history or today.

Organize an alternate event, one which embodies the true spirit of Americans and Christians, and use that capitalism that Nazis despise to shop at those businesses that are closing on Saturday; the loss of revenue on a Spring Saturday can be brutal for a small business. And financially support groups and companies that call out the hate speech for what it is, without violating the constitutional rights of those who hold such views. Newnan Strong has the right idea about how to oppose Nazis in our neighborhoods.