Spike Lee recently described what it was like to be the one who broke the news about Charlottesville to Barack Obama.

Director Spike Lee recently described what it was like to be the one who broke the news about Charlottesville to Barack Obama.  Lee told Time magazine that he was at his home in Martha's Vineyard, which is next to a golf course frequented by Obama.  Upon stepping outside, he saw the Secret Service and approached the former president.  "Did you hear what happened in Charlottesville?" Lee said. Obama indicated he hadn't.  "I could see on his face—that shock," Lee recalled. It's been one year since deadly violence broke out during a white nationalist rally in the Virginia city, and, by many accounts, the people who live there are still coming to terms with what constitutes recovery. The New York Times recently described Charlottesville as divided, with some wanting it to return to its idyllic, pre-rally state and others "who say that the city must make sweeping changes to address deep-seated racial and economic disparities."  Not long ago, Kathy Galvin, a city councilwoman told the Washington Post, "We lost our naivete," adding that the display of violence and racially-focused hatred "gave rise to introspection and soul searching."