The Ku Klux Klan has received permission to hold a rally in Austin in support of the proposal to outlaw same-sex marriage in the Texas Constitution, and the planned demonstration has managed to unite forces on both sides of the debate heading into the Nov. 8 election.
"I hate to say that we don't need friends like that, but we don't need friends like that," said state Rep. Warren Chisum, a Pampa Republican leading the push to pass Proposition 2, which would define marriage in the constitution as a union between one man and one woman.
"I want nothing to do with the KKK," he said...
Officials with the American White Knights of Ku Klux Klan told the city that they are planning a "pro-family-values rally" in support of what they call traditional marriage.
Jessica Edwards, secretary of the Klan's Texas chapter, said in a letter to Austin officials that the white supremacist organization has no plans for violence or confrontation during the two-hour event, and do not plan to wear the hooded white robes long associated with the Klan.
"We just want to come and encourage people to vote for Christian family values and against legalized homosexual marriage in the state of Texas," Edwards said in her letter. (Link)
The thing that cracks me up about this is that they actually have a secretary, which means they have official organization positions. Can you imagine putting "Treasurer of Texas Chapter of the Ku Klux Klan" on a resume? I mean, that's as likely to get you a good job as having been the director of an Arabian Horse Association.
And before anyone gets up in arms, let me say that I am emphatically not comparing most Christians, or most opponents of gay marriage, with the KKK. That would be as absurd as those on the right pointing out that communist groups like ANSWER are against the war, so therefore people who are against the war are communists. The KKK is about as far removed from anything resembling genuine Christianity as it could possibly be.
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It does lighten the heart for a moment to read about this KKK rally. I need a good chuckle now and then.
Ed said, "I mean, that's as likely to get you a good job as having been the director of an Arabian Horse Association." LOL Two chuckles in one! What a Post.
Maybe the Klan could have another demo to support Intelligent Design. Their slogan could be "Evolution my foot -- God made us in His image!" Whaddaya think? Do we have a winner here? Or would they have to "unearth" a pre-Cambrian fossilized white pillowcase with eyeholes first?
A wag might suggest that a pro-gay-marriage group hired the KKK to stage the protest, and tar the anti-gay-marriage people with guilt by association.
I'm not a wag, though.
/tic
I'm curious as to whether the KKK intends to publically point out that their "pro-family Christian values" include the traditional divine injunction against marriage between those of different races. Since the arguments against allowing the unholy abomination of miscegenation are pretty much the same as the arguments against allowing the unholy abomination of gay marriage, this might (in theory at least) give pause to some of the proponents of the amendment.
While I'll (grudgingly) agree that the KKK does not represent the worldview of most christians, I think that misses the point. The take away from this post is that a position that advocates limiting a basic right to some groups of people while denying it to another is BIGOTRY. And the KKK is an organization of bigots. This should cause some people who are anti gay marriage to think very hard about their position in light of their scriptures and their constitution and consider that perhaps they are on the wrong side of the issue. I continue to be appalled that, when it comes to gays, many people feel discrimination is alright. Perhaps this will call some attention to that...
mikey
The KKK apparently has yet to receive the memo from the creationists that only atheist evolutionists are supposed to be racists.
I remember hanging out with the portrait photographers doing senior pictures at my high school in Florida. Various topics came and went, and for some reason the KKK came up in the conversation. I opined that the KKK had become a redneck social club. One of the photographers became very agitated. I suppose, looking back on it, that he may have been a member. He tried to be restrained, and essentially said that I shouldn't go around making statements like that. Being on school grounds with tons of witnesses around may have saved me from learning a sharper lesson about the KKK.
Between five and ten years ago I was visiting a friend in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and took a drive up in the hills on a route that featured various craftsmen/women. I collect knives; I was admiring the handiwork of one knifemaker, and talking about the art of fine steel when he said that he had a rare collector's set that I might be interested in. He went into the back of the shop and hauled out a presentation case of about two dozen Case folding knives, all beautifully etched in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Ku Klux Klan. We did not do business.
It always shocks me -- not as much as it used to, unfortunately -- when someone assumes that I'll agree with their bigotry because I'm white.
And when the city of Austin stumbles and tries to block the rally, the ACLU will step forward, once again, and provide the necessary first amendment protection legal briefs to that organization, as it should. It must be confusing for the regressa-sertives to attack the ACLU as commie socialist liBiral faggot lovers, and have to explain to their own Klan children that it helps them too.
If people would just ignore the KKK, it is probable that they would just go away. It is usually the publicity they get from the battle over parade permits and the protesters that they are looking for. Like the American Nazis in Skokie IL a few years ago.
I have an interesting legal theory:
While it has been long assumed in American legal thought that the first amendment protects political speech no matter how vile, there are provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act which specifically make it a crime to be a member in a terrorist organization.
Now, anyone who is at all familiar with the history of the KKK recognizes that they are most certainly a terrorist organization, and that they have engaged in acts of terror for over 150 years throughout the United States of America and continue to advocate acts of terrorism. I'm not saying that we should arrest them, or that any PATRIOT Act prosecution, especially for membership in an organization, is necessarily a good idea, but it does raise an interesting legal quandary