Last weekend, our town awoke to a town that had been visited by the KKK. Their warning flyers had been affixed to three local, historically black churches, a local food truck, and some other random places.
Within 24 hours, our community had put together a press release, which was delivered from one of the churches. Over 100 people attended. People from different denominations, community leaders, and concerned citizens attended to stand together in agreement that this would not stand.
Within 48 hours, two arrests were made. Guess who just happened to be at the exact location, at the exact time, when the grand wizard was arrested? That would be me! What are the odds of that? I was driving to a friend’s house to do a zoom meeting. I pulled into a parking lot when I got a glimpse of it, and took a few pictures.
The wizard had bail of $4,300,000. He was out on bond by nightfall. The next day, he posted a sorrowful apology letter, stating that that he is not racist, and didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong by posting threatening racist posters onto historically black churches. his social media, which I will not share pictures of due to the extreme racist nature, features him in KKK grand wizard outfit with confederate flags and burning crosses. I hope it gets removed, but I’m not holding my breath.
Free speech really isn’t free. So many equate free speech with hate speech. I fear our freedoms are becoming skewed and removed under cloak of darkness. People are free to yell through bullhorns to me and my children that we are going to hell, but a drag queen in a story character costume can’t read a book to children. In my observation, the most threatening speech usually wins, and the peaceful speech backs down for safety. I continue to observe and document as we watch our rights transform before our eyes.
~AoA