How is the Ku Klux Klan still a thing? In old movies we see those white-sheeted ridiculous-looking figures riding on horseback through the countryside, carrying fiery torches, setting the shacks of poor black people ablaze and leaving burning crosses to light up the night. But this is in the past, right? Wa-a-a-ay in the past! How can it be that they are still around and still preaching hate? How is it that former Grand Wizard David Duke is still making headlines … praising our pathetic excuse for a President? I just can’t believe that in the second decade of the 21st Century the KKK can still be something that people want to join.
And Nazis . . . how is it possible that they are still a thing? I remember learning about Hitler as a child, and reading The Diary of Anne Frank. We also learned to say “Never Again” and were promised that our society would make sure that something like that wouldn’t happen again. Not to us. And certainly not in this country! But look at what is happening now, in Charlottesville and elsewhere. It is devastating, and very frightening, to discover that Nazis are still very much a thing.
How do we get off this Highway to Hell so that we can all get along? I certainly don’t claim to have the answer, but the first step is to get rid of this evil presence in the White House and all of his hateful cronies.
Suzy
I so agree with you Suzy…how can these organizations of hate still be a thing! While touring WWII sites around the Normandy battle fields this past June, we were taken to a German cemetery, and one grave in particular; that of Michael Witmer, a “super-Nazi” soldier who represented everything the Third Reich wanted to be. He had “dark blond” hair (brown), but blue eyes, chiseled features (we were told…he had been dead 73 years), and fought bravely. What was very disturbing to me and made me get the hell out of there was that his grave in FRANCE is being venerated today! There were fresh flowers, candles and other commemorative items on it in June of 2017! Neo-Nazism is on the rise everywhere.
Wow! This piece, and the skillful, intelligent work with which you expressed some uniquely described but very universal thoughts… This would make a powerful, timely Op-Ed piece! Give it a quick revise and send it out. Not kiddin’!
I fully agree with Charles. This is a terrific piece and should be turned into an op-ed. And anyone — be it the press or, worse yet, the idiot President — who dares to pull a false equivalence, “there are good people on both sides” rationalization of Nazis and the KKK — should be unconditionally shamed and shunned. As you so well note, how can we even still be discussing these things in 2017? Thank you for your outrage!