Shepherdsville, the KKK and Karma

This morning found KKK hate fliers decrying racial mixing atop many of the cars of my little city of Shepherdsville, Kentucky. This is in Bullitt County where I grew up and although I'm not the least bit surpirsed, I am disgusted and angry. I can't but think how these fliers might effect any of the minority groups now living in greater numbers here. At the minimum, it may ruin their morning. However, the hatred and violence this sort of free speech engenders is what truly worries me.

I took one of the fliers to the Shepherdsville Police Department and brought it to their attention. I didn't know if the fliers had been widely dispersed or if it was just the cars in my driveway that were targeted. I live across from the Mayor and happen to have a large group of Latinos for neighbors.

The police told me they had already been informed of the fliers the night before and that they caught some people in the act of placing them. Although it is free speech and all I can really do is tell the KKK not to come onto my property in the future.

I wanted the police to be aware that these sorts of groups were active in Shepherdsville. Of course, the police, I'm sure, don't need me to inform them of the KKK's presence. It has a long history here in Bullitt County. In fact, I've been told that the Grand Dragon of the Kentucky faction lived up in the hills of Bullitt County near my family. I seem to recall a close relative dating a practicing member during my youth. It's all quite sick, sad and demented.

Remembering, during my childhood, the ease with which racial slurs rolled off the tongues of some of my cousins and their children shocks me still today as it did even then. The absurd aspect of this racism, I specifically remember thinking, is that most of the children happily repeating racist jokes they had obviously heard from their parents had probably never even met anyone of another race. They just were taught it was funny and okay to denigrate others who are different.

And of course, without exception, what justification do the KKK and their fliers use to support their promotion of racial purity through segregation? You got it. The Bible. 'Here a quote, there a quote, everywhere a quote quote' proving - at least in their minds - that God is behind them 100% because, they point out, it says so in the Bible!

Now of course many 'believers' will lambast the KKK's notion that the Bible or God supports racism in any form. Thank Goodness. Hopefully more 'believers' will also come to recognize the insanity and immorality of promoting this sort of 'Bible Abuse' towards gays and lesbians. How many times must some hate-filled, minsinformed xenophobe be called out for misusing the power of belief and faith to promote an agenda of segregation, racism and human denigration in 'the name of God' before the greater society will see the insanity of these lines of argument? For instance, the phrase 'Sanctity of Marriage' used by the President, churches and many other 'believing folk' to promote the segregation of gays and lesbians from equality under the law is in essence no less morally inept than the KKK's phrase 'Purity of Race'. Both appeal to fear of the other and make it sound as if one is protecting the common good. These messages of intolerance are cleverly smothered in the scent of righteousness, thus obfuscating the underlying manure of which they're comprised.

The Bible and its over abundance of words has often been enlisted in the cause of hate. When powerful charismatics (preachers, priests, gurus, etc.) highlight certain spiritual texts and manipulate them to give authority to their own contemporary prejudices and opinions, evil is surely afoot. Unfortunately, it may take greater forces than goodwill and education to enlighten the white supremacists and their kind to the basic fundamental ignorance of their world view.

In a century or so, when latinos greatly outnumber those of european ancestry here in the United States, the tables likely will be turned. The majority will become the minority not only in number but in power as well. When and if this happens, the ancestors of today's white supremacists surely will learn the meaning of the word karma.