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HATE RISES: California Rally Sees KKK Marching in The Street

America has no place for folks who don’t understand what “liberty and justice for all” means.

America has long been a nation unafraid of confronting its demons.  This is a union that, while imperfect, is built upon the idea that the journey to perfect is truly the most valuable piece of the puzzle.

And, in that more perfect union, we believe that all are created equal.  We believe that liberty and justice for all means FOR ALL.

And that is why, with every fiber of our being, we must rebuke and belittle those who continue to exude the imbecilic and racist ideals of the past.

In California, the issue became pressing this weekend.

Now, the city is bracing for a White Lives Matter rally Sunday. The event — which arrives after a smattering of Ku Klux Klan fliers were distributed in Huntington Beach and surrounding areas — is sparking new demands that the city take more profound steps to shake its association with right-wing extremism once and for all.

“These groups will continue to come back unless the larger community stands against them,” said Mary Adams Urashima, a Huntington Beach resident and historian. “That has always been the case, historically, wherever the Klan or white supremacy shows up.”

The rally, organized by the Loyal White Knights, is slated to take place at the Huntington Beach Pier. For days, community members have been planning counterprotests and pleading with public officials to intervene.

Locals were not amused.

“Here we are again looking (the KKK) in the face,” one resident said during a Huntington Beach City Council meeting Monday. “When are you going to do something?”

Some plan to attend a counterprotest organized by Black Lives Matter Huntington Beach that has been scheduled for the same day. But others say those countermeasures don’t do much if the KKK feels it can march the streets of the city unchecked.

“The Klan is coming here because they think that you will do nothing,” another resident, Lisa Marquise, told City Council members. “They’ve seen racist bullies come to downtown this past year in one guise or another and face zero consequences.”

The United States, while having succumbed to some horrific behavior in decades past, has continued to exist as a place of supreme opportunity and vision, with instances such as this becoming thankfully rarer as the day go on.

 

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