{"id":16390,"date":"2016-08-09T13:13:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T13:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16390"},"modified":"2016-08-09T13:13:17","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T13:13:17","slug":"celebrating-the-klans-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16390","title":{"rendered":"‘Celebrating’ the Klan’s birthday?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"Hooded<\/a><\/p>\n

Some things simply defy one’s ability to comprehend.<\/p>\n

Such as whether you should in any way, shape or form honor the existence of a certifiable hate group.<\/p>\n

An East Texas newspaper, the Longview News-Journal, did what I — and many others — consider to be the unthinkable when it published a front-page story commemorating the 150th year since the founding of the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.dallasobserver.com\/news\/readers-revolt-over-longview-newspapers-coverage-of-the-klans-birthday-8573838<\/a><\/p>\n

The paper had a big front-page picture of a cross-burning with hooded Klansmen standing around.<\/p>\n

The outrage in the community has been profound. It also was expected. Residents in the town tucked in the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas are calling for a boycott of the paper.<\/p>\n

Indeed, this is a remarkable thing to witness in the second decade of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

The Klan deserves only to be condemned for the violence it has brought to Americans over the past century and a half.<\/p>\n

I once lived and worked not too far from Longview. The southeast corner of Texas has a community or two perceived by many to be havens for Klan-type activity. You mention the name of the town Vidor to anyone near Beaumont — where I lived and worked for more than a decade — and you often\u00a0get a sort of knowing glance and wince<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The town, about 10 miles east of Beaumont on Interstate 10, is full of fine folks. But they all live with\u00a0the knowledge of what their town symbolizes to many people.<\/p>\n

Indeed, East Texas has been scarred — as have many regions throughout the South — by the Klan.<\/p>\n

As the Dallas Observer reported: “After the story \u2014 which was adapted from an Associated Press <\/i>wire story \u2014 ran on Saturday, reader Hillary Sandlin laid out the case against the paper on Facebook. ‘This makes us look like a bunch of backwoods racists and only further reinforces incorrect stereotypes about most of the people in this area. These ‘chapters’ could be six guys who made a group, but the map makes it appear like it’s a thriving organization,’ she says.”<\/p>\n

For the newspaper of record in Longview to single out a hate group has opened up some deep and festering wounds.<\/p>\n

Simply unbelievable!<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some things simply defy one’s ability to comprehend. Such as whether you should in any way, shape or form honor the existence of a certifiable hate group. An East Texas newspaper, the Longview News-Journal, did what I — and many others — consider to be the unthinkable when it published a front-page story commemorating the … Continue reading ‘Celebrating’ the Klan’s birthday?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,18],"tags":[1502,2692,6472],"class_list":["post-16390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","category-state-news","tag-east-texas","tag-kkk","tag-vidor-tx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16392,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16390\/revisions\/16392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}