It’s our business

I am having difficulty finding in my heart the Christ-inspired love for the Ku Klux Klan my pastor and other church leaders have referenced. As March 30 approaches, my indignation is becoming more intense. You cannot convince me that the choice of Holy Saturday as the rally date and Easter Sunday as the rain date was a fluke. This was a calculated affront to Christendom and its values. When the cross is used as a symbol by a group espousing bigotry and separatism, I get upset.

To the best of my recollection, the parks being renamed are municipal parks, paid for and maintained by the citizens of Memphis. We do not need legislators in Nashville interfering. We do not welcome a group based in Pelham, N.C., promising “the largest klan rally in Memphis’ history” with “participants from all over the country” telling us what to do with them.

With our democratically elected representatives and through our properly constituted forums, we ought to have the right to name our city parks as we choose. This is how a representative democracy works. While its results don’t always conform to my wishes, I prefer it to coercive fascism.

I heartily concur with those voices speaking against an in-your-face counterdemonstration. A response of this nature will generate the kind of publicity the KKK hopes for. The cost to our city for the KKK’s police protection is already a heavy burden to shoulder. The specter of civil unrest with its potential economic damage and threats to public safety is a price too great to pay for these interlopers to exercise their First Amendment rights.

On March 30 I will boycott all crackers. I will neither eat nor purchase crackers. I urge other citizens of this city to do the same. Memphis don’t need no crackers.