I just love these discussions on an otherwise frigidly cold Sunday
morning!
The white power hate groups are everywhere, especially in small town and
rural America, but in the big cities too. The last "white power rally"
poster I tore down was in Kalamazoo, and that was in around 1992 or
1993, and it was posted on a streetpole in our integrated neighborhood.
White supremist groups are out there, active. A standard enticement is
to invite kids to a free rock concert where all the rock bands are white
power groups (they have their own album labels, publishing companies,
subculture, etc) and there are speeches in between the sets seeking kids
to sign up.
Edward Norton Jr. was not making that stuff in his movie "American
History X." The movie chilled me because of its realistic portrayal of
what is going on out there, even now as we post on this subject. It is
a great movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
Was it two years ago that the young man drove through Indiana and
Illinois and killed random Jews, people of Asian descent, and African
Americans - including by chance the former head coach of the Nothwestern
basketball team - thinking that was the mission of his white supremist
church, whose headquarters are in Illinois?
My guess as to why Timothy McVeigh of the Michigan Militia wants to have
a public execution - ever think why he does? - is that it is his
outreach to attain cult status and inspire the many people out there to
follow in his footsteps, people in our midst who subscribe to these
types of things. And there are many, many out there.
Klan Watch would tell us that KKK activity per se is down right now.
For those who think that this means the problem has gone away, they are
very naive. Others have continued in those paths with greater
sophistication. Neo-nazi groups, militias such as McVeigh belonged to,
white power hate groups and Christian hate churches are out there, full
and not empty. Hell, right now I could drive you to the headquarters of
the southern Michigan branch of the Michigan Militia, McVeigh's group.
I'd say, show the kids the KKK websites. Let them read the Protocols of
the Elders of Zion (the antiSemitic forged "proof" of the Jewish
conspiracy) and let them read Mein Kampf.
But give the kids context. I read all the hate literature, including
Protocols and Mein Kampf, as a kid, I grew up in all white NW side
Chicago in the 60s, how could I have missed it? I grew up in the
midwest, which had major Klan chapters well into that decade, and I grew
up in Chicago with George Lincoln Rockwell, head of the Nat. Assoc. for
the Adv. of White People, or whatever he called it. Was it so long ago,
maybe in our hallowed 1960s, that George Wallace ran for president and
carried several states within a few years after his 'Segregation
yesterday, segregation today, segregation forever" speech? But I also
had enough perspective to know shit when I saw it. Evil shit.
I do not believe in censorship. But I do believe in values, in a
Scriptural morality that is the antithesis of this hate, Klan and
otherwise. As the gay bumper sticker says, Hate is not a family value.
What we have to do is teach our chidren our values, our rationales, our
understandings and perspectives, and let them make their own decisions.
Censorship only makes things exciting and forbidden. Lay the stuff out,
say this is what it is, and this is why I am against what this is.
That means we *talk* to the kids rather than always do our own things.
You can't show a kid a movie about Holocaust and think you've done the
job; he might be hearing elsewhere that the problem with Holocaust is
that the Nazis didn't get them all. So watch together and talk
together. Take the time to raise the kids with conversation, listening,
and knowing what is out there. That means we have to stop being naive
about what is out there, too.
Censorship is not the answer, ongoing conversation is. Those
conversations must go on over the course of years and be backed up by
our lives.
Kids will be recruited for a lot of things. What they accept, and what
they pass by, that we have a chance to influence. Don't hide stuff from
the kids, let them know what reality really is, and teach, and pray, and
trust, and hope.
All of this, of course, is my own opinion. I am glad that this forum
can talk about stuff like this as there are few places out there where
we can do so, exchange ideas and thoughts.
(the Rev) Vince
