Not to slam Idaho a whole lot but they can always move that BS up to Hayden Lake to the compound there.

I'm sure they would love it.

They need to tie-dye their sheets and go see a light show on LSD if they think they are going to make any difference in keeping the parks the same names. (it's just another way of saying they are not only crazy...but high).

there are those who carry "the south" over their shoulders like a bag of bricks. at some time you just have to let it go.

steve , please contact me at this nick+yahoo.com

I'm sorry but "Exalted Cyclops"?

LOL!

stimulatingsolutions

Why if I might ask?

Well said Bean. I was raised in Mississippi. As soon as I graduated high school I joined the Marines and got the hell out of there. It was so amazing to see the world and meet people from different parts of the US and hear different points of view. My brother and I both live in Colorado now. I can totally relate to what you are saying.

@Derrick Themusicproducer Miller
I don't think KKK from all over the united states will come to a country ass murder city in 2013 to rally over a PARK.

I don't know... it's only 228 miles from Memphis to Pulaski where the Klan was originated and another 75 to Nashville where they held their first national meeting at the Maxwell House Hotel... now they can meet at the new Millennium Maxwell House Nashville... they'll come, and they'll bring their guns because Tennessee is a Concealed Weapon Reciprocity.

The more I think of the name "Grand Cyclops" the more fitting it seems.

James Joyce called one of his chapters CYCLOPS in his book Ulysses.

That chapter was about a Character that could only see things from his own point of view. He was incapable of acknowledging others and had a one track mind.

Yes I would say GRAND Cyclops is rather fitting.

Armed Drones over Memphis... hmmm...

They hide behind "my heritage" and other garbage.

Yeah... if they can't do any better than to choose a history of lynching, intimidation, segregation, and slavery as their 'heritage', they must live a rather sad existence indeed. I personally believe that one can be proud of their southern heritage without dredging up Nathan Bedford Forrest and the Confederacy. Do people in the Midwest or Great Plains states loudly proclaim the slaughtering and forced relocation of Native Americans as part of their 'proud' heritage? I think not.

thousands of Klan all in the same public place... at the same time... I call that an opportunity... just sayin.

I concur. Get the Army Corps of Engineer ready to start a new construction project around Forrest Park on that day. Time to flip that 'electric fence' idea around.

thewordsmith

Okay. Here's an idea. the klan is notoriously a hate group. Hate groups are illegal under federal law. We get the federal troops in there and anyone

You know... I totally agree with what you say... but I got to tell you, as a retired US Army Master Sergeant, I can tell you that you would be surprised at how many active Klansmen are serving in our military... this is also true of active gang members... sad but true.

OH SNAP!... just thought of something... why not get the Bloods, Crips and any other gang willing to travel to Memphis to crash the party...

Some of you Dems forget it was the Democrats who started and funded the KKK up till 1964, yup thats right, they not only killed Blacks but Republicans as well, Yes the Party you support under Lord Obama now, yet he perfers the Black Panthers over the KKK, as its more politically correct today.

Selective reading (or comprehension) has claimed yet another victim. Yes, those Dixie Democrats was big reason why the south was the way it was back then but did you forget about the Republican 'Southern Strategy'? Did you somehow miss the fact that the vast majority of these Dixie Democrats actually jumped ship and joined the GOP? Oops, I guess you just 'accidentally' omitted those inconvenient facts.

Pretending the Civil War, slavery, Confederacy or the KKK does not and did not exist does exactly nothing

Well, I guess all the whiners can count their blessings that the black-dominated city council didn't re-name the three parks: Martin Luther King Park, Malcolm X Park, and Barack Obama Park.

The KKK is, and has always been, a terrorist organization and should be treated as such.

Save it for Muslims boys and the other elitist a$$holes that need your attention more than this park does. Why don't you folks rally like this for important nation destroying issues. Who gives a rats ass about a park when the whole damn nation is under threat from collapse and war?? Pussies and bullies you can only pick on those weaker than you is that it...try a strong enemy one that actually threatens your freedoms and even your ability to be the KKK...OK?

This is for the ignorant people that think the Civil War was about slavery. IT WAS NOT!!!!!!!. The Civil War was about states rights. The issue that spawned it was indeed slavery, however, slavery as such was not a part of the war until Lincoln made his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, after the war had been going for a couple of years.

BS. That is a clear distortion of history if not outright revisionism. Confederacy VP Alexander Stephens made it quite clear in his "Cornerstone Speech" of 1961:

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

Go ahead and tell me that the preservation of slavery and the institution of racism was not part of the foundation that the Confederacy was built on. It would seem that even the politicians within the Confederacy at the time would disagree with you. Furthermore, the Texas declaration of secession stated:

"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable."

You can argue about 'State's right' until you're blue in the face but you can not tell me that slavery wasn't one of the main reasons why the Confederate states chose to secede.

KKK=Black Panthers=haters,racist,reprehensible.

You can argue about 'State's right' until you're blue in the face but you can not tell me that slavery wasn't one of the main reasons why the Confederate states chose to secede

Winners have the right to rewrite history, always was like this and always will be.

I recall a decade or so ago, when the Aryan Nations were still staining N.Idaho, they held a World Congress and drew about 100 people. I'm guessing a few pickup trucks will suffice to hold the members of the KKK terrorist group who muster for this rally. And to the dim bulbs who deny that the Civil War was primarily about slavery, read South Carolina's secession declaration. After a few paragraphs about their right to secede, their first gripe is about getting their runaway slaves back.

I guess every now and then the Klan has to stage a march or a riot or something to remind themselves that they still exist.. and that their cause of celebrating a war 160 years lost is still somehow relevant.

A park named after the slave-owning founder of the KKK who promoted murdering freed African-American slaves? Why not name a park after Hitler or Stalin or Bin Laden? After all, it's history (and I'm a historian).

Dig the corpse of the KKK founder up, burn it, and scatter the ashes. Where its grave was, put up a spitting spot.

This is like Germany fighting to keep parks and statues of Hitler and the Nazis around in Berlin so as not to "rewrite" history. Some things are so shameful and wrong that they should be rejected and reviled outright. It's not about rewriting history - it's about not glorifying the parts that never should've happened in the first place.

Boys and girls let me give you a wee bit of information that should be noted and understood by one and all. The issue around these parts isn't the names of some parks or who may or may not be buried there or what history they may or may not stand for. The issue in these parts was, is, and shall be to keep the pot well stirred. After all, a populace in turmoil will be too busy fighting amongst themselves to realize that the city is being run by imbeciles.

The basic fact is that the names of the parks was a non-issue - no screaming, crying, protesting, etc. - until the pot stirrers started stirring the pot. Of course now that the pot is stirred and the Klan is threatening a protest we'll have all the pot stirring morons like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton trotting into town to mug for the cameras and spew their own brand of idiocy.

Quite frankly, the whole country would be better off if all these clowns would hold a giant kegger, get drunk, and fall in the Mississippi.

Why don't we rename Confederacy Park to Traitorous Southerners Park?

So the war in the South was about slavery. If so, than what are Reparations needed for? Many people from the northern states, who had nothing to do with owning slaves gave all they had to stop slavery. They bled to death on the battlefield to free them. What was left to those families after their fathers, husbands, brothers, sisters, and sons and daughters died to free the slaves ... They never even had relatives who owned a slave and gave up famiy members for them, yet they are still owing them more in the form of Reparations??? hmmm

"Personally" I think that most of us are extremely over the KKK here in America "period"

It was not a civil war - a civil war is two or more sides fighting to control a government. It was fought, not to control a government but escape one. For every reason to fight the War of Independance, the same reason was there to fight the "civil war" and there was one reason in addition - Lincoln's ego. He did not want to be the President that lost territory.

Was the War of Independance fought to preserve slavery? Yes, the British were actively working to eliminate slavery in the southern colonies once the war started. Was either war supported by a majority of the people residing in the land? No.

A lot of people were deprived of the right to vote in the colonies and later the states. To be allowed to vote one had to be a real estate owner with a minimum value to that real estate, and one had to be an active member is an accepted Christian Church. The percentage of the population allowed to vote was quite small.

Was slavery evil? Perhaps, according to our standards. What aspect of our culture will future generations find evil? However, according to the culture of the time and location, it was not. The people declaring the Confederates evil are engaging in cultural imperialism and against a culture that cannot fight back. That takes real a coward.

The KKK, the Aryan Nations, Stormfront and all the other white supremacists and skinhead groups that base their tenets on bigotry, intolerance, isolationism and a solid hatred of any kind of diversity resulting from the intermingling of different races are, thank the good Lord, on the way out.. Oh, there will always be people that hate and fear anyone who is different and they will drift in and out of these groups looking for someplace to belong.. Most never do fit in unless they are pathetic losers and followers, willing to do what anyone tells them..

But, happily, the majority of people in this country and most of the planet don't believe the same way these guys do and the result is a much greater diversity and beauty in the children that are born from mixed race relationships.. These children are, for the most part, more intelligent, more creative and far more beautiful.. The reason is simple, diversity in ALL forms is necessary for the creation of life, without it, stagnation sets in and, eventually, death..

Someday these groups will be gone for good, the world will be made up of a melting pot of intermingled races that will, eventually, become just one race, Human.. It's too bad we have to go through this long period of putting up with people who's small, narrow minds are locked behind doors of solid fear..

Civil war was a shamful episody of the American History , regardless the motives, more than a half of million brothers, sisters and childs died. During end of the civil war , the "total war" declare by General Sherman when the Union army burn southern towns , kill child's, rape their woman is something for not to proud. Confederacy had to pay for their sins.

The forgoten history

"On July 5, 1864, Federal General Kenner Garrard's cavalry reached Roswell and
finding it undefended, occupied the city. The cotton factory was working up to
the time of its destruction, some 400 women being employed. Despite its
tiny size, the town had become the center of a thriving textile industry during
the war. The cotton mill was cranking out up to 191,000 yards of cloth per month
and the woolen mill up to 30,000 yards of "Roswell Gray" uniforms. Each of the
mills employed hundreds of women, some of them black."

Blackpearl, since you're so smart, how many presidents can you name who have a post graduate degree? Oh, by the way, how far did you go in school?

The KKK is not going to march in Memphis. But, there will be lawsuits. You can't go around renaming parks or buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places...which Confederate Park is.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/544407_555782184447095_1157186018_n.jpg

Some of you Dems forget it was the Democrats who started and funded the KKK up till 1964, yup thats right, they not only killed Blacks but Republicans as well, Yes the Party you support under Lord Obama now, yet he perfers the Black Panthers over the KKK, as its more politically correct today

Starman: We've forgotten nothing. We belong to the party of tolerance and acceptance in other words the left. Before Johnson we'd be republicans, after that democrats. If you were older or studied history you'd know democrats were the party of bigots until Johnson forced through his civil rights act tearing his party apart. After that the parties shifted but one thing remains the same, the KKK belongs to the far right whichever party that is at the time. Prior to Johnson that was the democrats but today it's republicans. The Black Panthers support racial hate but how many white people have they murdered? The KKK has committed hundreds if not thousands of murders since it was founded. Rather than label it democrat or republican simply look at the party that hates minorities whether it's blacks, gays, hispanics or whatever. There's a reason that despite the population being only around 50% white the republican convention was 99% white. They don't represent America today.

The KKK is far from being gone. History cannot be changed. Black people you need to study your history, your own people sold you as slaves and PS it's not just blacks that have been slaves, people of ALL races have been slaves at some point in history. It is about time somebody stand up and fights against those who are trying to erase what true history is.

Kanic: There's a difference between remembering history and honoring the dark side of it. Would you support statues of Hitler and streets named in his honor? I don't think so. History books are the proper place for histories villians, not statues in a towns main square. Your comments on the Black Panthers being the as the same as the KKK falls short. How many white people have been murdered by KKK and how many by the Panthers? The KKK number's in the hundreds if not thousands.

Ok to get away from the mindless arguing over the KKKs beliefs. They have the right to protest as long as it is peaceful. I don't have to agree with their beliefs only allow they their rights. Although their message is reprehensible it is their freedom of speech which allows it. The Civil war was fought over more than just slavery. It was fought over the issue of States versus federal rights. That same fight is going on today with the legalization or weed. Slavery is the easies scapegoat for the civil war because by todays standards slavery is wrong. We blame only the slave owners though. We don't blame the African tribes who sold the people from neighboring tribes into slavery. We don't blame the business which felt with transporting the slaves to auction. These were all wrongs that get glossed over. Hell slavery exists in America and elsewhere in the world through forced labor practices and the human trafficing enterprises. None of these are right.

@ Larry, The Black Panthers is the biggest hate group that exists and I am not ashamed of my herritage noir am I ashamed that I am white and I stand up for my white race. My ansecestors fought in that war and died in that war and they were citizens of this country just like the other side was. I am proud of my heritage and that flag will always fly in my family whether others like it or not-it is my God given right.

I love the right wing scum and their attempt at word play. The reason there were so many Democrats in the south is because the Republicans were the party of Lincoln and the party that was in charge when the Reconstruction took place. Southerners blamed the Republicans for the way there land was taken from them during Reconstruction so up until the Civil Rights Era when the Democrats so strongly supported Martin Luther King Jr it was political suicide to run as anything but a Democrat in the south. Most of the bigoted southern Democrat racist were Democrats in name only and did so only for political expediency.

the kkk doesn't have a voice any more dear numbers are dwindling every year and soon to be history themselves

@Larry-. P.S. I think statue and monuments of history is a great thing, at least maybe some people can learn some history from it as it seems our schools are not teaching true history anymore, they are trying to change what textbooks have in them. If you really knew your history you would also know that the war was not just about slavery and for that reason also that flag will never be discarded in my family and to the thousands of families that live in the south that are proud of their heritage and who they are.

These park renamings must really aggravate the Bob Byrd wing of the Democrat Party.

There were honorable men who fought, not for slavery, but for the South. - No one will deny that Robert E Lee was a great man. But Bedford Forrest sounds like an atrocious, evil person. The park's name should have been changed long ago.

Mr. Cole

Anyone who feels it necessary to even ask "was slavery evil?" is so far removed from decency, historical fact, empathy, reason and humanity as to lose all credibility in an honest discussion of the topic. Beyond the pale, sir.

old fat guy-1144960 - Pretending the Civil War, slavery, Confederacy or the KKK does not and did not exist does exactly nothing

True, but that's no reason to honor a traitor, a white supremacist, a slave trader, a slave owner and a murderer by naming a park after him.

Rosco-1033353 - This is for the ignorant people that think the Civil War was about slavery. IT WAS NOT!!!!!!!.

Sounds like you're a product of the Texas edukashunal system.

Perhaps you should read the Confederate Constitution and the various articles on secession to see just how prominent the right to own other people was. Slavery was the central reason.

http://cwemancipation.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/slavery-in-the-permanent-constitution/

thewordsmith - Hate groups are illegal under federal law.

No they're not. Very strange that you thought they were.

What the hell is wrong with people anymore? You can only handle HISTORY if it is about what YOU want? Are you kidding me? African Americans were not treated any worse than the Native Americans. History is something we all need to learn so we don't keep repeating the same mistakes, all this is teaching anybody is if you whine and bitch enough you can get history changed. The city council in Memphis is a sad joke! Makes me ashamed to live in this state anymore! And Thank God I am in another part of the state, cause I would be ashamed to know I voted for any of these people. It's a park for crying out loud. Last time I checked, judging people was not their job, whatever this man done wrong in his life, I think GOD has taken care of it far better than the city council of memphis ever could. And I bet they all jump up every Sunday morning and run to church too! Shame on you! And YES I am half Native American, and very proud of my heritage, and have studied it for years. But every time I see white people, I dont get out a tomahawk or start bitching that they killed my ancestors and I need to be paid for it, or that they need to change the names of certain things because it offends me! What does offend me is when a statue is put up of a person that people want to act like is some kind of God, and if they would do some digging on that history would find that this person was a pedifile and doesn't deserve a statue. But nobody wants to talk about that. Sounds like a bunch of sissy school kids. It happened, it's over, I wasn't there, and I can't change it now. Get over it! Move on, live your life and do your best. And if these people want to gather and bitch about it, it is their right, and they have just as much right as Sharpton and Jackson whom always seem to show up bitchin but never have a solution to the problems, they always seem to cause one. So I say let them all go to Memphis and scream and yell and act a fool if they want to. But it still the same park with the same statue and grave and if you don't like that park, take your ass to another one, it isn't the only one there.

Kanic: Other then at the last elections when the Black Panthers responded in a few area's to protect black voters from being intimidated by the 100,000+ tea party poll watchers when's the last time you heard a story on the black panthers? There's dozens of stories of KKK raliies every year and other then the last election I hadn't read anything about the black panthers in years. If you think the black panthers are the nations most active hate group your bias is showing.

PC runamook

Larry you are full of it, :100,000 plus tea party poll watchers???? Under what rock did you just crawl out from under, You are a liar!!!!!

The new black panthers have actually been seen on multiple occasions spreading their hatred. They have rallies monthly and parade on the streets constantly screaming how we need to kill crakers and white babies in the hospitals etc etc etc.... The only reason they are not on the news every night with how bad their racism and racist remarks are is because holder and obama are their buddies!!!!

Do a little research on the new blak panthers, you do not have to work hard at all to find their hate full rhetoric or racist remarks anywhere...

We will never hear about the doj going after them though because they are the protected class and according to holder and the doj they will not go after them as long as obama is in office!!!!

What is so "honorable" about betraying America? What is so honorable about shooting American troops? What is so honorable about degrading the American flag by replacing it with stars and bars? Where is this honor you speak of? THERE ISN'T ANY!

The same people who wave the flag, call themselves patriots and call people like me "un-American" are defending the flag of treason and hate for America. how is this even possible. Take the dam hood off, face your neighbor and stop hating him. Join in as part of america, not part of some awful hate group. it's about dam time.

The mastos name lol... No disrespect to African Americans, but really you should listen to Malcolm X; you hate the Dixie Flag and anything that's Confederate, which is part of history just like your names. WHO do you think gave you the names Johnson, Peterson or Jones? Your slave owner! Get rid of that! That's the slave stamp you will always carry. You know something I have never heard of an African native with the name Bobby Jones... Think about it and quiet frankly stop screwing around with history and whining. It's the past let it go... or change your names...

It figures. White people in this country are so damn stupid they can't see what is going on and the guilt ridden don't want to. Have any of you bothered or had enough sense to notice that the only person with a holiday named after them is this country now is martin luther king? No more Washington's birthday,Lincoln's birthday no more anything like that. Only him. Wonder why that is?@ 82allamericans. You sound like a real winner. Bring in a bunch of thugs and murders to counter another group. The sewer Memphis has turned into who in hell would want to defend it? They even have to have a fence around St.Judes to keep them out. Oh yeah a lovely place. The people who fought in the civil war on the Confederate side deserve respect just as much as those from the north. They fought for what they believed in at the time. It was a different time and should be remembered as such. Those people are a part of history and always will be like it or not. The other thirty two percent of people who live in Memphis should leave and see how long that place holds up,lol. One other thing you Southern knockers never mention. You like to run your mouth a lot but probably don't know. General Robert E.Lee freed his slaves before the start of the civil war. Your great Grant kept his until it was over and he had to free them. The South hater Sherman had a lot of slaves following him on his march through the South as he went. When he got to a river and the Confederates were closing in on him he made a crossing for his army and then left the slaves who were following him behind. Why? To be recaptured by the Confederates so he could get away. What a hero right,lol. You people should learn history before you run your mouth about something you don't know half as much about as you think you do. I have a Confederate flag. More than one. Never owned one or wanted on in my life until all that crap started in South Carolina a few years back. Enough is enough. Stop whining and crying. Doing stupid stuff like what is going on now just makes more. People get tired of it. I've been sick of it for years now. All of you complaining about Confederate flags as well, please stop by the private property where they are and tell the people there you don't like them,lol. I'd love to see that,lol. I think the Indian people should start a movement to erase all things about the black Buffalo soldiers. They joined the white mans army and helped them to enslave the last truly free people on this continent. Wasn't that nice of freed slaves to help enslave a truly free people? I guess that's ok with a lot of you though. As long as it's not black associated you don't have to worry about it. Your Conscience is clear.

You can rename everything as much as you want, but it's still just what it always was. I bet 80% of the people there had no earthly idea what that park was even named for, all they know is that it's a new headache for google, the yellow pages, and whatever other location systems are used nowadays, much less people now have to learn the new names. I can see cabbies being erked about this. Still, I'm just waiting when people start to scream that confederate graveyards need to be bulldozed, and the bodies destroyed.

Really though, this is just another attempt to erase history. And yes, they were historically named after bad people. So what? Those people don't exist anymore, and people probably know them just by name, not who they're named for. Drop a frelling letter and stop crying a river. Frankly I'm tired of us doing everything to erase the bad things we did, rather than sitting there, remembering it happened, and learning from it. There is no delete button, you can't take your blog post back, because so many people died, an entire country was torn apart by it, and general stupidity from that era continues to reign even today.

Heck, the South still flies the Confederate Flag every so often. I still see it around, in the North AND the South. Even when they move, they still see it as part of their heritage, and it was. They're proud to be Southern. Just as proud black people run around calling each other the "N word" all the time (meanwhile, they have free reign to call us saltines. Oops!). In any case, the fact people are getting in a hissy over a frelling park name THIS LATE shows that these rebels without a cause have nothing better to do. They're fighting over park names instead of jobs. It's a feelgood patch for a lack of any sort of work beyond this stupid little decision.

its the NWO...they get us to fight with each other while they take over...Cyclops is a FBI agent..most likely ...

If you are not aware of HISTORY you are doomed to REPEAT it..........UNITED WE STAND and DIVIDED WE FALL ..........To the REPUBLIC and the CONSTITUTION.

They say that there are thousands of members and I think they are counting men, women and children but you have to remember that there are MILLIONS of Americans so their numbers are smaller than the number of people that hate overweight and ugly people! I do wish they could do something about stopping them from getting attention and STOP honoring them by plastering their ignorance all over the news! The media could refuse to post garbage that highlights ANY type of racists or hate groups! That includes Black Panthers and any other Terrorist group!

I have a little bit of insightful news for the idiot's of this rebublic/ lazy gluten filled Democracy....

We Are All Slaves Now......

If you don't believe it then try not paying your taxxes, purchasing healthcare or questioning your local law enforcement when they harrass you at a traffic checkpoint and you will find out...

This sounds like political correctness gone too far. History is history, even if it is not nice.

KKK? You mean they still exist?

To pretend that the Civil War wasn't fought to pereserve a way of life based on chatttel slavery is a sop to the guilty consciensicnes ofd those in the SOuth. The ASOuth had a chance to engage ENgland as an allly in the Civil War but couldn't because they weren't willling to give up their slaves (as the English had done some years before (after being responsible for a bunch of the slave trade, of course.) Slavery was integral to the SOuthern Economy. Denying that is also a way for the SOuth to keeep from paying reparations to the descendants of slaves.

Chosen - congratulations yuou have mastered the Right WIng art of hyperventilated, overheated non-sensical rhetoric. Enjoy your imagainary chains, Toby.

Christopher Cole

There was a reason you had to own land to vote. Because if everyone voted you get what we have now, the people who have nothing, because they are too lazy to work for anything, vote for those who have worked to give them some of that wealth. Hence, Obama's redistribution of wealth plan.

Rename it Zebra park in honor of O'Bamma. Or crack Park, which honers Moochell O'Bagger.

The new black panthers have actually been seen on multiple occasions spreading their hatred. They have rallies monthly and parade on the streets constantly screaming how we need to kill crakers and white babies in the hospitals etc etc etc.... The only reason they are not on the news every night with how bad their racism and racist remarks are is because holder and obama are their buddies!!!!

Garrie: Liar. There may be individual radical blacks that have made hate threats and referred to whites as crackers or some other derogatory term like many whites have used the N***er term to describe blacks but stating you believe murdering white babies is an agenda for the black panthers shows you to be one of the loonies. Whether white or black lunatics like the church that praises god that soldiers or children are murdered are a handfull of nutjobs. Pretending the statements from those represent the beliefs of even a tiny portion of blacks is absurd. Saying they hold regular parades like the KKK is nonsense. Usually the only time they come out in force is like election time when the tea parties true the vote projected they would have 100,000 poll watchers to monitor black voters. You'll have a hard time convincing anyone with a brain that Fox and Limbaugh suppress coverage of the Black Panthers because they're buddies with Holder and Obama.

Some of you Dems forget it was the Democrats who started and funded the KKK up till 1964...

And some of you Republicans like to pretend that it wasn't Your Party that began supporting them after 1964. Read up on the Southern Strategy and how the Democrats and Republicans switched sides over the course of several decades. How the Liberal Republicans became the Conservative Republicans, how the fighters for what was right and just in America became the party of Cheating and preventing minorities from voting. And how the Democrats went from being the founders of the KKK to being the champions of civil rights! (Ok, the Northern Democrats, the southern Democrats (Dixiecrats) are all Republicans now.

So the next time you bring up that argument just remember this, Lincoln was a radical liberal. The Southern Democrats were the deeply religious and conservative folks of the south.

Dennis, that's a common narrative, but it simply isn't true.

The vast majority of the Southern Democrats, known as Dixiecrats, REMAINED Democrats until they died.

Men such as Bob Byrd, James Eastman, Al Gore Sr., William Fulbright, Theo Bilbo, George Smathers and many others.

The Southern Democrats are even apparent to this day when we see that convicted and jailed felon, Keith Judd garnered 41% of the registered Democrat vote over President Obama in the primary.

You are promulgating revisionist history.

Arthur66 - The vast majority of the Southern Democrats, known as Dixiecrats, REMAINED Democrats until they died.

True, but their ideological successors are all southern Republicans today.

skrekk

Arthur66 - The vast majority of the Southern Democrats, known as Dixiecrats, REMAINED Democrats until they died.

True, but their ideological successors are all southern Republicans today.

Ideological successors are the same Democrats, who keep African Americans in their Plantation, feedeng with crumbs and using them only in time of elections. Just go to Democrat Chicago, Democrat DC, Democrat Los Angeles, Democrat New Orleans , wherever is a large population of African Americans , there is a Democrat Plantation , poverty, gangs, drug addiction, crimes all because Democrats want to keep them like that poor and dependent from the welfare check, so they can scare them every electing telling that the evel Republicans want to take away their welfare check because they don't care about poor African Americans.. Al Sharpton and the rest of racist only care about them , not about their people. Democrats use them to blame Republicans for their miserable condition and the never ending "racial discrimination" . However Democrats have no problem to demonise every African American who is out of the Plantation. We have a Black President , move on. Put your butts to work , blame Democrats and yourself for your own condition. Learn from African immigrants who recently came here from Ghana, Kenya and other countries now succeeding in America.

@Okicize Wicasa Yata Pi... you should either get over yourself or get off that high-ass horse you're on... it's too bad you can't recognize SARCASM when it happens.

Okay. Here's an idea. the klan is notoriously a hate group. Hate groups are illegal under federal law. We get the federal troops in there and anyone in the sheet society or supporting the sheet society gets arrested for hate crimes or involvement with a known hate group. It may not break them, but it surely will cripple them

Hate groups are not illegal and you can be part of a hate group all you want under the protection of the US constitution. Committing a hate crime is a CRIME and that is illegal. You can not regulate how someone thinks or believes and trying to do so is a violation of their rights.. Once again the US constitution will be in your way.

Curious Shrekk are you a KKK member for sound like one.

To everyone else, Yes The KKK is american terrorist group against against anyone who does not have blonde hair and blue eyes; although a few with dark hair are included. Yet these are humans that are filled with unjustified HATE and hate only kills. They also happen to own many many guns of all sizes and use them whenever the urge presents itself

I guess we can only pray that the Feds will be there and arrest those who display violence, terror, come with weapons. Yes they do have weapons of Mass Destruction--do not put such past such haters.

They are a Hate Group for they promote avenge for and distribute HATE! How much more Unamerican can they get!

Johngis do you not belive that burning crosses on another's lawn or lynching is NOT A CRIME. Unfortunately many still do so today but they get away with it! And do you think tying someone up to a pick-up and then dragging them all over rocks and barren lands is NOT a Crime.

Shucks the Iranians may be more resonsable than our own home grown terrorist group---thee KKK!

I seen where Buffaloe51 comment was collasped for his comment and can't figure out why ??? He had the most thumbs up as any other I have seen on this site-- he had 147 thumbs up so why on earth was his comment collapsed-- it just shows censorship be done on this site. They are against the freedom of speech if its different from theirs.

Actually Larry the original founders of the Black Panthers have disavowed this new group as a bunch of morons that have nothing to do with the founding concept of the Panthers

down with big brother:

In response to your comment #1.89; point #3: "If the rich northern textile owners were so against slavery, why did they buy slave labor produced cotton?"

From what I found when I googled it; cotton in the 1800's was primarily, if not exclusively, grown in the southern states. The textile mills could not have produced much, if any, cotton textiles. To import it would have cost a fortune, they would have had to charge HUGE amounts to sell anything at the slightest profit. I don't believe they would have had many options, other than to not produce cotton textiles.

point #4: I agree with most of the point, except for "only a very small % of southerners owned slaves"

When I googled it, most sources said in 1960, 25% of southerners owned slaves.

Your last statement in the comment I can't completely agree with. I agree we never want to forget the horrible events that took place in history, we are destined to repeat them if we do. However, as many have stated on this thread, never forgetting is very different from honoring those events and the people who participated in them. We don't need to honor them to ensure they're never forgotten.

Several other people posting have used the analogy of never, ever forgetting the Holocaust; but to erect a statue of Adolph Hitler in a park; or naming a park Auschwitz Acres would be nothing short of absolute disrespect and very few would stand for it. I don't think too many clown schools have pictures of John Wayne Gacy in their buildings.

I completely agree with point #5. Of course racism and bigotry are not limited to whites or southerners. Everyone who hates members of the gay community is a bigot, anyone who hates a member of the opposite gender is also. Bigots and racists are present in every single state, religion, and race.

down with big brother:

I apologize. I was just reading some other things about slavery. Apparently the south did ship cotton to Great Britain. So, if it could be shipped TO overseas locations; it would follow that it could be shipped to the northern textiles FROM overseas locations.

I read that in 1860 the south grew 75% of the cotton produced in the world. I don't know what other countries grew cotton, other than India. The Suez Canal had not yet been completed, so India likely wouldn't have been an affordable cotton source for Great Britain. It would have been very cost prohibitive for the northern textile companies to import from India, with the Panama Canal not being even started until 1881.

Anyway, I don't know if it was or was not feasible for the northern textile companies to import cotton; there could be other countries that could have been growing cotton in 1860 that may have been more accessible than India; so I definitely got ahead of myself in disputing your comment. Thanks.

Larry-367607:

Your comments have been, by far, some of the most well-researched, and least emotional and least abusive of most of the comments I've read regarding this article. Thanks very much for posting all of them.

no skrekk is not communist he is homosexual

Confederate Cemetary you say? Why isn't that racist?

Confederate Cemeteries are where the battle dead were buried. That's why. We have one in Chicago. While not a Confederate cemetery it is one where the dead from Camp Douglas are buried. After the war northern whites did not want to be buried there so it became a black cemetery. In in a ironic bit of karma it's in a 100% black neighborhood and most of that cemetery now is full of famous blacks and wealthy blacks. I've been to several Confederate cemeteries as I am a civil war buff. Not one I have been to was named after a Confederate.

Great comment! Made me laugh.

What freedoms were those, oki? Care to name a few?...

I think I can answer that for you Cat, The freedom from a black president.

Exalted Cyclops could also stand for the number of working brain cells possessed by this person...ONE.

I live up the road a bit from Pulaski, TN which is noted as being the birthplace of the KKK, and unfortunately there are too many people in this area who have this mindset of maintaining that abominable level of bigotry. When the KKK tried to have a parade in Pulaski a few years back they were denied.

Times have changed, and like STEVE-35642331 I think they'd be better off moving to Hayden Lake or Sand Point, ID. If it's good enough for Mark Furman, it should be good enough for them; that part of the country is as replete with peckerwoods as this one, and they can buy all the sheets they want.

DWillie have agree on some, but dont forget the Rebs were and still are Americans. The Democratic Party started the KKK, supported and funded it, yes it was Racial but they also went after Any one who did not support the DNC , and we still see some of that today, the DNC supported it from 1865 til 1964. However it is the DNC wanting to Destroy the GOP, sounds to me Under Obama we have another Racial and political power play.

I don't think it is racist, If they say it is a new view. I feel as if they are just buring the cross in respect to Jesus. The are not wanting to kill Jesus therefore they are rallying to keep him a live =+)

KKK? Really? Burning crosses, slavery, lynching, white sheets, are you serious? Bed sheets, pointed hats, is this for real? Grand Master Dragon wizard guy. I'm sorry, can't even keep a straight face, what a bunch of racist morons. They are threatening to protest the changing of a park's name. Wow, I would be frightened. Anyone who hides behind a mask does so for a true lack of honor. Cannot show their faces because they do not want people to know who they are. They know that it will not be long before the rest of the world starts to torment them. Cowards in their bed sheets. These people have no say in the world anymore.

Please tell me the "Exalted Cyclops" had to gouge out one of his eyes to merit that title.

"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" should be playing at all the movie houses for their whole stay. And if you've seen the movie, you know exactly where the Cyclops scenes are, and what happens to him.

let me guess, most on here voted for evil to take AMERICA down, and you jerks got it. in time you all will have to pay the piper and he is ugly. thanks for helping him to destroy AMERICA and our freedoms.

You're a fool. No president in history has done more to weaken this country then Bush. 3600 Americans dead on his watch on 9-11, 2 wars with 6,000 dead and the worst economic collapse since 1929. Millions lost their homes, 8 million their jobs and the free money policies he inacted have reeked havoc on the value of our money. More Americans have died under Bush than any president prior to Vietnam. Bush took far more of our freedoms then Obama could dream of. You people have no idea of the scope of the Patriot act and what it did to our freedoms.

DWillie have agree on some, but dont forget the Rebs were and still are Americans. The Democratic Party started the KKK, supported and funded it, yes it was Racial but they also went after Any one who did not support the DNC , and we still see some of that today, the DNC supported it from 1865 til 1964. However it is the DNC wanting to Destroy the GOP, sounds to me Under Obama we have another Racial and political power play

Starman: You people are really deluded. That's the problem with you right wingers who think it isn't the message but others twisting it that's the problem. It isn't democrats pointing out that republicans oppose abortion in any circumstance it's the leaders of your party actually opposing it in all cases. Who's to blame when your leaders call 47% of Americans handouters because they pay no income tax? They ignore the fact a good portion of those pay none because of the Reagan and later Bush tax cuts and that number includes all retired seniors and many military. Who talked about legitimate rape? Who told hispanics they should self deport? It isn't Obama pointing out the divisiveness of your party it's your constant bashing of gays, blacks, hispanics, seniors, the poor and and the sick. Your party is all inclusive of white people making at least 50K a year and paying taxes. Everyone else, not so much.

Larry; once again showing your ignorance, do a little history on the growth and history of Al queada and you will see that it grew under Clinton and that because of clintons incompetence it became so strong!!! He allowed them to attack us on numerous occasions and did nothing about it which made it easy for osama to recruit by using all of the pictures of the attacks and saying how week the US is and that they could defeat them and since under clinton we had Mogadishu, two embassy bombings and the USS Cole and a couple ofother Islamic attacks on us that Clinton did nothing about, the islamic fanatics thought they could attack us and get away with it. Fortunately we did not have clinton in office during 9/11 or we might not have done anything!!!

I will admit that bush was very ignorant and was wrong for going into Iraq but once he did we had to finish it or AL Queda and other terrorist groups would have used it as propaganda much like they are now because of the way obama had us leave. If we leave Afghanistan in the same manner we can look forward to a new stronger Al queda that will do another 9/11 on us!!! I would not put it past us having another terorist attack on our soil within the next year or two.

I hope and pray I am wrong but with obamas appeasement and proven weakness on the way he is fighting the war on terrorism I foresee it.. Yeah he does drone strikes but he has tied the hands of our forces and in return he has cost us many american lives..

If you look at history of the deaths in both of the current wars you will see that more of our troops of died under obama not bush!!!! Ampost twice as much!!!!!! More of your lies!

I also hate to tell you but the housing bust was caused by two things, 9/11 and the democrats who had to push through bills that allowed anyone with a job to buy a house whether they could afford it or not and the democratically created Fannie and freddie.

The rest of the economic collapse, being caused by all of the freebies? sorry but that is all obama also!!!!

I know you lib, progressive, socialists just hate the truth but that is just the facts and the truth!!!!

@dwillie. please feel free to do the same. Soon as possible.

It is a shame that we have to erase history to be politically correct and it is a shame that we have the idiot KKK standing up for our rights. To heck with Memphis and its history it will be nothing but the history of the crips and bloods from now on. It is a dump.

Does the "Exalted Cyclops" wear a monacle? I am imagining a character like Colonel Klink (SSSCCCCCHHHHHUUUUULLLLTTTTTZZZZZ!!!!!!)

Larry; once again showing your ignorance, do a little history on the growth and history of Al queada and you will see that it grew under Clinton and that because of clintons incompetence it became so strong!!! He allowed them to attack us on numerous occasions and did nothing about it which made it easy for osama to recruit by using all of the pictures of the attacks and saying how week the US is and that they could defeat them and since under clinton we had Mogadishu, two embassy bombings and the USS Cole and a couple ofother Islamic attacks on us that Clinton did nothing about, the islamic fanatics thought they could attack us and get away with it. Fortunately we did not have clinton in office during 9/11 or we might not have done anything!!!

Garrie: What can I say, you're simply a fool. I'm sure I could, "research" and find an article about how 9-11 was all Clinton's fault written by another right wing nutjob like yourself. Like the claim that Bush had nothing to do with our financial meltdown, it was caused by Clinton or some even say Carter. Eight years as president and it happens the last 6 months of his presidency but he had nothing to do with it. The Bush administration was informed that men of middle eastern descent were training at Florida flight schools but not concerned with landing. They did nothing. Was that Clintons responsibility too? Quit drinking the Limbaugh kool aid.

If you look at history of the deaths in both of the current wars you will see that more of our troops of died under obama not bush!!!! Ampost twice as much!!!!!! More of your lies!

How do you expect people to take you seriously when you simply make things up? 90% of Iraqi war deaths happened under Bush and far more total deaths under Bush. You admit Bush going into Iraq was a mistake but say you're afraid Obama won't be agressive enough to insure we win then blame him for the deaths because he's trying to do that very thing in Bush's wars. Huh?

What is the sense in winning a war if you can't rewrite history? I can imagine when the Blacks become a minority and the Hispanic rule they can change it again to Zapataland.

alan3008

Well, I guess all the whiners can count their blessings that the black-dominated city council didn't re-name the three parks: Martin Luther King Park, Malcolm X Park, and Barack Obama Park.

or even worse: Jesse Jackson Park, AL Sharpton Park and Michael Jackson Park

I agree that we should not rewrite history, however, there is no need to honor the first leader of the kkk or anyone else who fought to suppress the rights of fellow humans. We can place memorials for the slaves so that we never forget the atrocities that are part of our history. We can teach our children about this huge mistake made by our forefathers so that it never happens again. The pathetic kkk want to keep the memorials to cowards, so that they who hide behind masks, feel empowered, when they really are just cowards too.

Dwillie: agree with your analysis. I m OK with the park name change. Particularly since it is a city park and the city is 61% black population now and Forest was a guy trying to kill and enslave Blacks. I don't live near there, but if the Black folks own the city now, then they have to own the city. Going to have to make it better then they found it - that's the American tradition. Another poster says Memphis is collapsing, the people with the money have moved out (a pattern well established up north) and the drug dealers, drug addicts, uneducated and unskilled and criminals are what's left. That is probably overstated, but there ya go. IF the population that inherits a city does so by running off the "other" people, then they own the city. It is theirs to run as they see fit. So have at it. Where it goes form here is to their credit or their shame. Best of luck !

Changing the name of a park is not 'rewriting history'. How many airports and parks and stadiums and other entities change names over the years? No one is going through the history books and erasing the Confederacy and the horrible things it stood for. Believe me, we aren't going to forget about what happened because a park is renamed. Having a park named after someone is an honor. Treason, slavery, and bigotry do not deserve to be honored.

Starman, I don't recall making a political statement about this subject and I don't give a damn about the party to which a piece of scum like Wiliam Bedford Forrest belonged. Republicans revile the very founders of their party and glorify the flag of sedition and slavery against which the republican party was established to fight. Your pretzelized mental meanderings about party are both fatuous and irrelevant. But feel free to take that nonsense over to Stormfront where I'm sure that there are plenty of knuckledragging, scumsucking pieces of excrement just waiting to applaud it.

Okicize, reading my post with a little comprehension should reveal the galactic stupidity of your response to it.

IReadyou, I've not been to Memphis but such a blanket statement about the city strikes me as nescient at best. The deterioration of urban America was driven primarily by deindustrialization and myopic public policy. Only the vacuous view race as a significant independent variable.

You're a fool. No president in history has done more to weaken this country then Bush. 3600 Americans dead on his watch on 9-11, 2 wars with 6,000 dead and the worst economic collapse since 1929. Millions lost their homes, 8 million their jobs and the free money policies he inacted have reeked havoc on the value of our money. More Americans have died under Bush than any president prior to Vietnam.

I don't blame Bush for 9/11. However, he bears full responsibility for the aftermath. After 9/11, he could have harnessed world reaction and sympathy into an extremely powerful force against terrorism with the US in the lead (even Iran offered assistance against the Taliban). Instead, his go-it-alone approach alienated our allies and potential allies and got us bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq, costing thousands of lives and and a trillion dollars.

Sally Lu

I agree that we should not rewrite history, however, there is no need to honor the first leader of the kkk

"Respectful" Honorable Democrat Senator Bird, KKK recruiter in West Virginia, recently died , Was honored with a funeral and his corpse exposed in Congress for people present their respect.

still agree with ya DWillie. I am a refugee from a northern town that de-industrialized. But all people of the different ethnicities did not move out equally. Some moved out - some, I said - because gangs of black kids ruled the streets. I was told by a State worker why his division moved out of a downtown office building. A series of many nasty experiences over a long time. His workmates watched two cops, backed up against a wall by a 7 teenagers who took swipes at them. The cops took that treatment because the city gubmint is almost entirely black and everyone knows that any reaction toward those kids would not play well in the black community. Also told of being in an elevator with several people and when the door opened to the lobby there were black kids in the lobby and one was relieving himself on the floor. The kids all laughed. Many of the workers in that building are black. No one should have to step over that mess in an office building lobby. The janitor should not have to clean that mess. Later, the State moved their offices from that downtown building. Workers, including the Black Staff wanted something done. Safety of their workers was a strong consideration. So there we are. Deny it if you will. I don't care a whit for the racists like Forest. But I can understand people abandoning a town when the residents act like that. So, the people who are left in a town with these residents are going to have to deal with it. It's sad. But what could be done ? Seriously, what would you do ?

I am curious:

Since the KKK wants to change a statue's name or plaxce whatever it is, WILL THEY BE PAYING FOR THE CHANGE, or will they coerce the citizens to pay or something that they do not want?

BTW I would love to see a Rabbi there praying by the old statue as well as a few Buddists, Muslims and Jains---wonder how the KKK would react to that!

Yes lynching people for no reason other than trying to vote or simply because of their color is a very rich history.

Do you run down the street with your hair on fire every time yo see three black men and a billy club, SturmAbteilungen?...

They posted a reward for his capture, they didn't put a bounty on his head.

This doesn't erase the South, and if you think it does you don't get what other lovely things are in the South. No one said everything was bad in the South, so this corrects some ugliness that was continued by celebrating things and people who were negative. And Sadden, you can try to make this about Black Panthers all you want, but it isn't what you are saying it is and doesn't compare to what these names meant. And how many parks are named things like, "Black Panthers Park"?

And yes, I live in the South and am glad this has been changed. Many Southerners aren't thrilled with the KKK, the idea of racism, bigotry, violence, slavery, and murder, and those names just tell people that we still think it's a cool thing to be hateful toward anyone not just like us.

IT doesn't matter, raddave, it's still a racits group that tried vigilanty justice. The same type that people are against the KKK for... only YOU support it. What does that make you?

And conjuering cat, well, yes, I'd be going the other way in a hurry if I saw three black men with a billy clubs coming my way. Why?

Again, "ram", I'm not trying to make this "about black panthers", I'm saying people are up in arms about things that happend years ago and yet, like you, do nothing about the things happening today.

I am not "white" or "black"... I'm an American. Say what you will, but as long as you give creedance to the racims you follow now, this will ALWAYS be an issue.

What happend, happend... what was the saying, "Once you forget about the past you're assured to repeat it"?

No one is saying to exhault what happend, but I am saying lets not forget it. To erase it is doing JUST that...

And conjuering cat, well, yes, I'd be going the other way in a hurry if I saw three black men with a billy clubs coming my way. Why?

Which makes you more of a coward than the voters at that polling place, NONE OF WHOM WERE INTIMIDATED by their idiotic posturing. Nice of you to admit you're a coward, mein herr...

Oh, and btw, SturmAbteilungen, one can remember the past without building monuments to it, unless you have the memory of a sieve...

Not at all "god of fate"... I'd be concidered a target by the KKK.

I'm stating that chaning anything to erase the past is a stupid idea... and changing it becuse it offends someone is an ever more stupid idea.

You won't read this in your history books. The Civil War wasn't fought over slavery. It was an important issue of the time. The war was fought because the north levied taxes to prevent the southern states from shipping their cotton to England for better prices.

Does this remind anyone of the red state/blue state issues of today?

I'd guess you've never had to find three people coming towards you with a billy club... not a coward, but a good idea.

It's a bad example for you to post JUST to get a comment... as most people like you, you made it from being a thing of cauction to a thing of cowardice.

If you feel like a big man by attacking me, again, you've no mark on my life. It just shows your character...

You mean like taking sides with the KKK shows your character?

Now, where in any of the comments I've posted did you get ANY of that shocked?? I mean, ANY??

And at what point did I "...side..." with the KKK GOF??

That's all your racism and lack of reading comprehension showing...

You never directly said it, but you keep taking sides with the KKK. It's pretty obvious. Shocked is only comparing what you stand for to the radical fundamentalists in the Muslim faith, as it being just as bad. That of course does NOT mean all Muslims are radical fundamentalists.

Just ridiculous to suggest changing the name of a park changes history.

Ever been to a library? At my local library I bet there are five or six shelves of books on the Civil War. From all sorts of points of view. And even books on the Klan and its history. It's like a magic fairyland. But those books don't read themselves.

Why should a city that is 72% African-American have a memorial to a bigot? Especially a city where MLK was assassinated?

GOF.... "You never directly said"... so it's your prejudice that you're putting onto me then?

At no time was I even remotely "... taking the sides with the KKK...", again, that's just your own prejudice and lack of reading comprehension coming out.

And voxrationis, it doens't change histroy, that's silly, but it does lead to erasing history. The Gemans keep some of the concentration camps still open JUST to remind people of how things were. When you have people denying that the holocost actually happened, it's places like this that keep the past in the forefront. Changing the name JUST to chage it is wrong... as I've already stated, changing it becuse that's what the people of Memphis want, that's different.

This issue is, as I see it, people on this vine are so predjudice, they attack ANYONE that doesn't fall in step with their ideals. Regardless of what one's point it, they attack and re-write the conversataion as GOF and conuring cat are doing. I've no more supported the KKK than they did... but it's more fun to attack someone, like they're trying, than to actually add to the conversation.

Generally, city parks are named after A) their location, B) the intended use of the park, or C) a person who is held up as a positive contributor to local life (although corporate sponsors are becoming more popular :[ )

At the time these parks were created, those names still had positive connotations (to the people in charge, if not all of the citizens). This may have been because of many other reasons than racism - despite the darkness in them, they were still symbols of a strong unity and local patriotism, in a region that was suffering - powerful emotions.

That was long ago, however. Generations have come and gone, and the associations have changed. Renaming the parks doesn't necessarily indicate a desire to rewrite history, or erase it. It just means that some people wanted to go to the park and not have the very name of the park be a downer, and enough politicians agreed with the change.

just name them the new black panther park

"sadden":

... it belongs becasue it's America.

The "confederacy" was not America in any way, shape or form. Sedition and treason are not American values and are, in fact, punished severely - as we proved in the Civil War.

Make your snide little comments about my reading comprehension if you want, who cares what you think? I honor the United States of America whereas you defend the glorification of her enemies. The statue you would erect to Osama bin-Laden is not a stretch for those capable of a second thought process. What bin-Laden did to the United States of America was a drop in the bucket compared to what the "confederacy" did - and here you are, arguing for it's glorification.

By the way - the accusation of "reverse racism" is an old, unsuccessful klan trick that was created in the '60's/'70's. You are here taking the same position as the klan and when confronted, you use a tactic invented BY the klan. Perhaps YOU need to put your supposed reading comprehension toward where your grossly unoriginal argument comes from.

Ram from one southerner to another well said

"GOF.... "You never directly said"... so it's your prejudice that you're putting onto me then?

At no time was I even remotely "... taking the sides with the KKK...", again, that's just your own prejudice and lack of reading comprehension coming out."

Then why is it you keep siding with them?

GOF, and how did I "side with them"??

And Shock, your comment about "reverse racism" is nonsense. No such thing... racism is racism.

The conferacy IS part of the American expierence... it happened. So stop playing like you know something. How do you get " I honor the United States of America whereas you defend the glorification of her enemies."

I honor the United States by trying to rid it of racims... you promote it.

I did my duty to God and Country, served in the Gulf War, did 8 years in the Military. I can tell you, first had, what racism is and what people like you would have the world come to... I faught that and looks like, I'm fighting now...

I am not a KKK but a son of the Confederacy. you bluebellies tried to run roughshod over the south. We have not forgot how you raped our women, stole our lands and killed our heroes. many of our leaders were direct descendants from the American Revolution. You can not put the genie back into the bottle. Your POTUS has done more to stir up old wounds and kick sleeping dogs. didnt you momma ever teach you Yankess some common sense--sometimes it is better to let a sleeping dog lie. But no you blue bellies want to stir up ghosts from the past, so be it.

When I was a kid i stole a radio. it was wrong. It hurt the person who's radio it was. I'm not going to call it glory, or honorable and I'm not going to build a park to commemorate it.

it is part of our history, a sad moment of treason. To glorify it is just plain wrong. And NOBODY is glorifying the black panthers. nobody i know , anyway.

John, if your southern leaders were honorable men, they would have simply ignored the north, built their own society and used passive resistance to succeed. Instead they took up arms like any terrorist. it was about greed, not about honor. it was about keeping black people in chains and treating them worse then farm animals.

Us blue bellies had and have something you didn't and don't. A CONSCIENCE. So take your "gone with the wind" mentality and know that someday you will have to explain this before god and Jesus.

Your POTUS has done more to stir up old wounds and kick sleeping dogs. didnt you momma ever teach you Yankess some common sense--sometimes it is better to let a sleeping dog lie. But no you blue bellies want to stir up ghosts from the past, so be it.

Now that is some good ol' Southern ignorance. That's exactly the sort of nonsense we hear day in and day out down here. You don't even acknowledge Obama as a fellow American, or as a Christian, but it's his fault you hold that animosity? ABSURD!

"Stir up ghosts of the past"? Nope, they are getting rid of them.

Those quick to judge, anxious to fight, & poised with vitriol, could take a lesson from Forrest, a self educated, self made man who amassed and spent one of largest personal fortunes in the South to fight, however righteously, for his cause; from Farewell Address to His Troops, in part as follows:

" ... Civil war, such as you have just passed through naturally engenders feelings of animosity, hatred, and revenge. It is our duty to divest ourselves of all such feelings; and as far as it is in our power to do so, to cultivate friendly feelings towards those with whom we have so long contended, and heretofore so widely, but honestly, differed. Neighborhood feuds, personal animosities, and private differences should be blotted out; and, when you return home, a manly, straightforward course of conduct will secure the respect of your enemies. Whatever your responsibilities may be to Government, to society, or to individuals meet them like men.

The attempt made to establish a separate and independent Confederation has failed; but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully, and to the end, will, in some measure, repay for the hardships you have undergone.

In bidding you farewell, rest assured that you carry with you my best wishes for your future welfare and happiness. Without, in any way, referring to the merits of the Cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-fought fields, has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. And I now cheerfully and gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to the officers and men of my command whose zeal, fidelity and unflinching bravery have been the great source of my past success in arms.

I have never, on the field of battle, sent you where I was unwilling to go myself; nor would I now advise you to a course which I felt myself unwilling to pursue. You have been good soldiers, you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the Government to which you have surrendered can afford to be, and will be, magnanimous."

gusto-2723788 - Those quick to judge, anxious to fight, & poised with vitriol, could take a lesson from Forrest, a self educated, self made man who amassed and spent one of largest personal fortunes in the South

Fairly easy to amass a fortune when you have people to do your work for you and you don't have to pay them anything.

Even easier when you can make a quick buck by selling people.

sorry, but some teabaggers are very racist; haven't you seen their signs at their rallys?

Enlighten me...

Go on line and read the signs and listen to those morons speak. They are the kind of people who kill their family and tell the police a black man did it.

Because the one from a claimed Tea Party leader that had "Obama = N!ggar" (sic) in bright, bold lettering was just a figment of the national imagination, right, mein herr?...

Sadden, make excuses and hold on to the past as long as you wish, but don't expect everyone else to stay there with you. And no one is really required to prove anything to anyone, you know? this is voluntary posting here.

No ram, again, you're wrong... the statement "sorry, but some teabaggers are very racist; haven't you seen their signs at their rallys?" is exactly a reason to ask for proof.

But, to say "some" of any group are one way or another is disigenuous to the conversation.. there are racists in any group. Hell, just saying you're "african-American" or "asian-Ameircan", or any other kind of "XXXX-American" is proof you're a racist. Putting forth race as the distiguising name is exactly what racisim is about.

Me, I am an American... first and foremost.

"No ram, again, you're wrong..."

Oh Sadden, what happened to everyone being entitled to their opinion? I seem to recall you posting something about that up a few comments. Hypocrite.

Wow. Ignorance is bliss. Often, the ones whom cry racism on these boards or in our society are in fact latent or blatant racists; their own hate triggers their declaring others with differing opinions as racist. A good number of Tea Party folks are NOT racist, but merely don't want the layabouts getting what they haven't earned. The ones who are opposed to them quite often are the trash with their hands out, carrying their pathetic feeling of entitlement.

If the racist screed of teabagger leader Mark Williams wasn't enough, various polls show that teabaggers are far more racist and homophobic than normal Americans. The only real difference between the teabaggers and the KKK is that the former wears silly hats with three points rather than just one.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/04/09/new-poll-finds-tea-partiers-have-more-racist-attitudes.html

http://gawker.com/5588556/the-embarrassing-racist-satire-of-tea-party-leader-mark-williams

shrekk, bad timing. XD

You asked, I answered... so why post only part of my comments?

ram-762581

Sadden, make excuses and hold on to the past as long as you wish, but don't expect everyone else to stay there with you. And no one is really required to prove anything to anyone, you know? this is voluntary posting here.

MrShin has posteded more eloquently than I had...

My posts just brought out the racism in the posters here... my bad...

You mean like your racism by supporting the KKK?

This is some sad mess. The KKK people who hide behind a mask of cloth to intimidate others and they used to get away with it cause folks did not know better. 2013 we now know better now...apparently they still do not.

Nahdiyyah, it's not JUST the KKK, it's the black panthers, the NAACP, then ACLU, and just about any orginzation that promotes it's own racism and predjudice.

The difference is, it's cool to support the NAACP and black panthers.

Calling one's self "African-American", "Ititalian-Ameircan", or any other form of "XXXX-Ameircan" is racism... and when the President of the United States uses that racist remark, it only adds cedibility to the use of racist titles.

You want to end racism in the Untied States? Be an Ameircan... not an "XXXX-American"...

Sadden -

In theory, I agree with you that any form of identifying yourself as "xxxx-American" is racism, and for some groups (defenitely the KKK, most likely the Black Panthers) it's true. Please note, I'm not saying you can't have pride in your heritage, but identifying yourself by or as your heritage is something different.

However, groups that are advocacy groups for segments of the population that are suffering will always form, and will continue to be needed as long as there are groups being treated unfairly. The NAACP, from what I've seen, does a fairly good job of being a helping hand for those in need, without becoming antagonistic towards other groups.

You do realize, don't you, SA, that the NAACP has many Caucasian members and contributers, as well as historically having a Caucasian president. And the ACLU is multiracial in it's make-up, as well. Please do explain how that promotes racism and division.

Identifying oneself by one's racial heritage is not racism. You attempting to tell anyone how they can identify themselves is racism.

Get over yourself.

Somehow I doubt even Baggers would give the Klan the time of day. The Klan had a peak of six million members in 1925. Now, the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates that it has between 3,000 and 5,000 followers... or shall I say stragglers.

We should seriously push to rename the Civil War, the War of Southern Aggression or maybe, simply, the Southern Riot, just to irritate them.

The NAACP, by it's very name, which promotes "colored people" is racist in nature. Would you say that a group that promote the advancment of white people is racist?

And no, DOCJT, "Identifying oneself by one's racial heritage..." IS racism!! Putting one's "race" above that of the United States does not add to the fabric of the Nation, it helps tare it down. You can be of "african" desent and still call yourself an American. Why is that so hard for people like you to understand?

The SECOND you segregate yourself from the Country, you're doing exactly what you claim the KKK is doing... and you think that's OK??

Racism, DOCJT, is racism, no matter how you try to hide it, cover it, or expain it away.

You may like being a racist, but me? I've no time, want, or need, to be part of your racist world.

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE ?

After listening to posters spree their garbage here, I would be happy to go to a KKK rally just for a breath of fresh air.

GEEZ

@ Sadden,

The KKK are thugs who have gone around literally brutally attacking and often killing people because of the color of their skin. This is well known. It is idiotic to compare calling oneself by the racial categories our society created to what the KKK has and still does stand for. If you honestly do not realize that the KKK are not only racist, but go way beyond that, you are an idiot. Stop trying to downplay one of the most violent and infamous hate groups on the planet!

I HATE THE KKK and Everything that it Stands For - brutality, ignorance, and hatred !

But come on people . . . why fight about an organization that is dead?

Why compare it to other HATE groups Black or White or Red ?

GEZZ

Comparing the Black Panthers with the KKK is nonsense. The KKK has killed 10's of thousands, the Black Panthers talk hate and shake their fingers. Republicans and democrats have reversed positions since Johnson. Republicans were anti slavery and democrats were bigots. The opposite of today.

Across the South, the Klan and other terrorist groups used brutal violence to
intimidate Republican voters. In Kansas, over 2,000 murders were committed in
connection with the election. In Georgia, the number of threats and beatings was
even higher. And in Louisiana, 1000 blacks were killed as the election neared.
In those three states, Democrats won decisive victories at the polls.

Nevertheless, the Klan's violent actions proved to many Northerners that the
South had not learned its lesson in the recent war. In this way, the Klan's
activities actually backfired. People realized that harsher laws would have to
be passed in order to stop the violence and protect Southern blacks. And those
laws were soon in coming.

tigerlover love the avatar btw anyhoo i don't know where you grew up but I grew up in rural Alabama and I still have problems reconciling what I saw the KKK do as a child. I am 34 so no they unfortunately are not dead.

Sadden, you sadden me. you really should stop listening to glen beck.

the aclu has defended everyone, including white Christians, the black panthers are gone and the naacp are pushing education for their own people. there are plenty of white people doing even more for white people. A private organization is allowed to discriminate for white or for blacks. If you want to start the "white peoples college fund" then go ahead. but don't be angry because black people are supporting their own, you are the same ilk that say"they should pull themselves up by their boot straps". that's what the NAACP is doing, and that's what the black panthers tried to do. your buddy J edgar hoover infiltrated the black panthers, had one of leaders assassinated and framed another leader.

The founders of the black panthers learned what Che learned, that violence is not the answer. that education is. the black panthers were feeding the kids and starting school breakfast programs.

Che was not assassinated for being a revolutionary, they hunted him down and killed him because he was starting schools and educating his people. that made him very dangerous, just like the black panthers who followed his latter example. not his revolutionary one.

What a waste! Hundreds of thousand white man were killed to free these ungrateful ???????..........!

It's interesting you mention the Tea Party.

There has to be some overlap in memberships between the KKK, the Tea Party, and gun rights advocates. (I'm guessing probably a significant overlap) That presents a political dilemma.

If the KKK rally does turn out to be huge, it could definitely backfire on the other two movements. A strong showing of the KKK would be enough to give gun control advocates all the ammunition (pun intended) they need to pass tight controls. It could also spook (sorry, another pun intended) the GOP mainstream into further emasculating the Tea Party and far right wing politically.

One has to wonder if some left wing elements embedded in the KKK aren't prompting this rally on purpose and out smarting the right wing in the process. It could also be that the KKK is just plain stupid. There are definitely precedents from them to back that up too.

If the rally has a pathetic or even a modest showing, that would present the KKK as irrelevant at a time that they seem to think they are a political force to be taken seriously. Either way it could hurt them and cause a backlash from other right wing groups, so whoever is prompting them to publicize a rally is clearly not doing them any favors.

If you are giving me a choice of guesses, Mike, I'll say KKK are stupid people, who are suffering from delusions of grandeur.

blackpearl

Go on line and read the signs and listen to those morons speak. They are the kind of people who kill their family and tell the police a black man did it.

...you don't sound too bright yourself

So the name can celebrate something positive and leave a plaque that gives the history of the place. People still learn without the hate being the celebrated part of the place. It is nice:)

Ram -

I like it.

Ram that is what I keep thinking, every park around me has historical markers. But apparently according to folks like saddened that if these 3 parks name changes suddenly everyone in the country is going to forget that we even had a civil war. Just like to thank you again you represent my views much more eloquently than I ever could. If I could explain my thought with equations and not words that would probably help. Stupid high IQ and I can't even form sentences.

The thing about history is that it's, well, history. Good, bad or ugly, it's never good to change something simply because it makes someone uncomfortable.

History is for history books. A statue in a town square to honor the founder of the KKK in a town with 63% of the population black would be the equivalent of placing a statue of Hitler in a predominately Jewish town.

Yes, because a half-dozen jackwagons playing with a billy club and pretending to be revolutionaries are THE EXACT EQUIVALENT of a terrorist organization which has targeted blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants, etc. etc. etc. for intimidation and cold-blooded murder for a century and a half...

But they have "black" in their name.

jpooch00-1527514

Maybe you should go to Memphis and tell them that, keyboard warrior

Conjuring is right, Sadden. You are just trying to hold on to something that isn't at all what you are trying to make it.

Bob, do you have to be an ignorant racist fascist on every issue ?.... Guess that's who you really are.

He wont come internet warriors are only tuff behind the keyboard. With that being sad most of the gangs in memphis are calling a seize fire to confront the clansmen,

Bob Im here I will tell them

Each and every member of the KKK can go f**k themselves (or each other, whichever they prefer).

There is NO PLACE for those kinds of people in today's world.

And that should go for the likes of those hatemongers the Black Panthers and others whom are racist bigots themselves. It works both ways, you see.

Sorry, I must have missed it...

ram-762581

Conjuring is right, Sadden. You are just trying to hold on to something that isn't at all what you are trying to make it.

Exactly what was I "...trying to hold on to..."??

The New Black Panther Party claims a couple of thousand member, the Anti Defamation League says it's much smaller. So to compare them with the KKK is ludicrous, the KKK is a terrorist organization, the NBPP is a bunch of pissed off African Americans shooting their mouths off, probably for good reason.

Racism is alive and well in the U.S. as is apparent from many of the posts made by Tea Party/KKK folks in these forums.

No such thing as an "Afican-American"... unless you're a racist...

Maybe you should go to Memphis and tell them that, keyboard warrior

There better be more than one or they'd wish they were behind a keyboard somewhere else. You can bet the KKK types keep their opinions to themselves until they're surrounded by their buddies. You ever see a KKK march of one?

No such thing as an "Afican-American"... unless you're a racist..

That comment makes no sense whatsoever.

Lately they sound very much like they want to re-fight it, Jim...

Yes, Jim...odd, isn't it? I live in Alabama as well and am amazed at that. But I think it helps keep the sense of how cool it all was alive. I mean it wasn't cool, but when it gets re-enacted it loses its misery and nastiness and becomes an event.

Remember that the South, and I live in Anniston, Alabama, is the only faction that constantly re-enacts a war that they lost...

Funny stuff... ;-)

Maybe they keep hoping this time it'll turn out better. ;-)

You like chicken, right?

Blackpearl they call themselves "GRAND" this or that and wear LARGE pointed hats because they are compensating for their small....

Too much government cheese to let go of?...

Nice critter, I have one too

right stop hiding behind those pillow cases and show who u are dont be cowards

yeah after reading so many of the comments I think I am going to take a trip to memphis and counter protest. Plus I can hit up Beale street while I am there

Sorry the President has them all booked.

JFD28=douche

You do realize that the party that started the KKK, were Democrats, right?

Yeah, and a great number of the thug ghetto trash blowing through America's streets thinks the same way about just about any white person. Funny how the dimwitted libs believe this is a one-sided affair. For the record a good number of the blacks are notoriously homophobic, as well as racist, xenophobic, etc.

Well, how patronizing and racist of you to believe that you know what another group thinks better than they themselves do. Congratulations. You have erased all doubt as to your bigotry.

Mr Shin I lived in a all black neighborhood for 4 years and all i ever made was friends.

PS I am gay white atheists so according to you I should have really been hated.

Which tells me your statement has more to do with you than it does them.

Next you'll tell me you live in South Los Angeles where all the Mexicans Have been declaring war on Black people.
Another hot bed of racial harmony

Nope lived in the south my whole life. I already smoke I would probably die from the smog in LA

I was just wondering since I pretty much meet all the criteria he listed to be hated and yet I was not so maybe just maybe it has more to do with the person/people then whatever he pulled out his A$$

You do realize that the party that started the KKK, were Democrats, right?

When democrats were the right wing minority hating party of bigots. Which party fits that definition today?

Godwin for the win!

Thats my Line!!!!

No, he currently works in the ghetto, robbing white America of it's hard earned money. Section 8 housing is the real evil.

Mr Shin , finally someone that will stand up for the whites. Thank you

Oh,yes. Those poor oppressed, marginalized white boys! /s/

ROFLMAO.

True Fact yes because white people have a long history of being oppressed in America. WOW Just WOW

yes I am white just not delusional.

RocknRhonda-1294271- Just quickly want to say something regarding your post. Slavery did NOT begin in America. Slavery began long before when European/ Spaniards were discovering new territory. When they discovered Africa they said they found unfree laborers (Africans/ black people) The slaves did not arrive in America for a LONG time, when the Europeans and Western Euopeans started settling here.

People! Pick up a history book or 4! Educate yourselves before making comments.