Occasional blogging, mostly of the long-form variety.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Cry, the Beleaguered Klansman


Since we were just discussing Holocaust denial, and I (predictably) mentioned Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous poem "First they came…" in the comments thread, this post by Bernard Chazelle at A Tiny Revolution is perfectly timed:

No Heckling Please, We're White Supremacists

In the news:

A white separatist group planning a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Jena is suing the town, claiming officials are violating the Constitution by asking participants not to bring firearms...

It's hard out here for white racists these days. First they took away their slaves, and we didn't speak up; then they confiscated their lynch ropes, and we didn't utter a word; then they came for their water fountains, and we kept silent.

What's next?

In an Oct. 15 letter to McMillin, Richard Barrett, an attorney for the Nationalists, asks the town for ... "adequate security," restroom facilities, access to drinking water, "adequate and secure parking" and no noise from hecklers.

I know the line in the Declaration of Independence about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of adequate, secure parking" but I looked in vain for a statement about heckling. All I know is, when you're trying to rule the world with an iron fist and enslave half of its population, heckling can be really annoying.

Oh, this also gives me the opportunity to link one of my favorite stories of the year (via Digby, via Perlstein).

The struggle continues, my brothers and sisters. (Thankfully, the right people are laughing.)


(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)

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