CullmanTimes.com - Cullman, Alabama

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December 13, 2008

TIMES EDITORIAL: KKK racists don't speak for Cullman

Some Cullman residents were surprised this week to find flyers from the Ku Klux Klan on their doorsteps. While many people may have assumed the Klan had disappeared, relegated to the most embarrassing pages of America’s history books alongside slavery and segregation, this unsavory group is still around.

Fortunately for us, it represents only a tiny portion of the South’s fringe population, as the modern South has become a much more progressive, tolerant place than when the Klan reached its peak decades ago.

Simply put, there’s no place for the Klan in today’s America. It’s become nothing but an irrelevant club for nutjobs who want to hang on to the most unappealing aspects of historical Southern culture.

Still, we find the Klan’s distribution of flyers in Cullman disturbing for two reasons. One, it’s awful for Cullman County’s image, making us look like racists when the vast majority of local residents hate the Klan and the principles it represents. And two — far more importantly — the Klan is making threats against our neighbors and friends.

Cullman County has changed drastically since the days of Jim Crow. We’ve become the poster child for the changing South, being featured on the front page of the New York Times and as far away as French national television after we elected a black man, James Fields, to represent our predominantly white district in the Alabama Legislature. We’ve changed a lot — and for the better — since the old days of racial discrimination.

Sadly, the tiny number of people still involved in the Klan are giving this entire region a bad reputation. Cullman County residents strongly oppose the Klan’s tactics, positions and history, yet the group’s continued activity taints Cullman County’s public perception. It makes us look like something we’re not.

Even worse, this shadowy organization is making threats in our community. Its flyers said some of our neighbors “have cause to fear,” apparently aiming the threat at illegal immigrants.

While we affirm the First Amendment right of every person and organization to speak freely — including using speech we find highly offensive — we simply can’t allow the Klan to make threats against other people in our community. No matter how one feels about the issue of illegal immigration, what the Klan is doing here in Cullman is flat-out wrong. Vigilante justice is, thankfully, a thing of the past, and we residents of Cullman County won’t let that awful part of American history repeat itself.

The Klan may still be around, but it doesn’t speak for today’s Cullman County.

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