KKK Rally In Dayton Is An Embarrassing Failure

(Picture of the KKK Rally, by Jim Urquhart/Reuters, is from Business Insider.)

This has to be an embarrassment for the racist members of the KKK in Ohio. They decided they would hold a rally in Dayton. They didn't expect a massive turnout, but even scaled back predictions didn't materialize. They only had nine members show up -- and they wore masks to keep from being identified, and spent their time behind a cordon of police officers.

They were probably smart to hide behind the police, since over 650 counter-protesters showed up -- shouting and beating drums to drown out the KKK.

All-in-all, it wasn't't a good day for the cowardly racists. That's a good thing. The city government couldn't deny them their right to assemble and speak. Those are constitutional rights for all citizens -- even racists. But decent people have the right to speak and assemble also -- and they used their rights to put the KKK in its place.

May every day be as bad for racists.

Amarillo To Have A Ridiculous "Rebel Flag" Rally

If there was any doubt that idiots and racists still exist in Amarillo, this should settle the matter. Today, there is to be a "Fly Your Flag" rally in the city -- and of course, the flag referred to is the Confederate battle flag (pictured above in a photo from Amarillo's Channel 10 News).

James Roberts, organizer for the event, said, "We're tired of the liberals trying to say our flag is hatred and racist . . . You know, 1860's we battled for our rights and now they're trying to take our rights away again".

Being a resident of Amarillo, I have a few things to say about this.

1. The removal of the Confederate flag from state property in South Carolina (and hopefully some other states) has nothing to do with taking rights from anyone. It simply removes a symbol (that many people are offended by) from flying on government property. State governments represent all citizens of the state, and the only flags that should fly (because they represent all citizens) are the state and U.S. flags. Any person who wants to fly the Confederate flag can still do so (or decorate their property or cars with that flag). The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees them that right -- no matter how offensive it may be to others.

2. There was only one right being defended by the Confederacy (and fought against by the United States) in the 1860's -- the right to continue to own slaves. No other "state right" was in question. And anyone who says otherwise is trying to rewrite history to fit their own bigoted ideas. If this flag represents any heritage, it is a heritage of slavery and white privilege.

3. The Confederate flag does not now, and has never represented, the heritage of the Panhandle of Texas. Note the map of 1866 Texas at the bottom of this page. At the time the Confederate flag was the flag of the South, the Texas Panhandle had no slavery, no plantations, and in fact, had not even been divided into counties. It was Indian country, and had very few (if any) settlers. The Panhandle has never had a "Southern" heritage -- it has a "Western" heritage, and even that didn't really start until after the Civil War (when the Confederacy was nothing but a bad memory). To think the Confederate flag celebrates Panhandle heritage is simply ludicrous.

(PERSONAL NOTE -- I was born and raised in Texas, and still live there. My mother's family came to Texas from Arkansas, and my father's family from Alabama. My Southern roots are strong -- and so is my dislike of this hateful flag.)

Palin Uninvited To Protest Rally

Next week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming to New York. Several Jewish groups have planned to mark the visit with a large protest rally. In order to help draw a large crowd and get the most news coverage possible, they invited both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin to speak at the rally.

Upon hearing that she would be on the same bill as Palin, Hillary Clinton said thanks but no thanks. She declined the invitation. That left only Palin attending the rally, and it looked like it might turn into a campaign rally for McCain/Palin instead of a protest against the Iranian leader. At least that's what the organizing groups thought.

The organizers have asked Palin not to appear at the rally. They issued a statement saying, “In order to keep the focus on Iranian threats and to ensure that this critical message not be obscured, the organizers of the rally have decided not to have any American political personalities appear."

Of course, the McCain campaign was quick to blame Democrats for Palin's being uninvited. McCain himself is beating that drum. He said, "Governor Palin was pleased to accept an invitation to address this rally and show her resolve on this grave national security issue, regrettably that invitation has since been withdrawn under pressure from Democratic partisans."

But it wasn't the Democrats that don't want the rally turned into a campaign event for McCain. It was the organizers of the rally. As one of the organizers, Ira Forman, said, “We have a presidential election where the McCain-Palin ticket want to use what’s supposed to be a very, very bipartisan-type of operation to, again, use it as a campaign event."

They just prevented the Republicans from hijacking the protest rally.