The Ku Klux Klan held a rally, defiling the ground at Gettysburg. About 30 of them demonstrated for two hours our so where men ever so much better than them once stood, fought and died. This offends me, but it is their right to hold their misbegotten opinions and even speak them in public. In fact, the more they do, the less attractive groups like them look. So go for it.
On the other hand, other groups counter-demonstrated. They included Confederate re-enactors and representatives of a group people who have family ties to people who fought in the Civil War who denounced the Klan's subversion of the Confederate flag.
Confederate re-enactors from Virginia protested the Klan's adoption of the Confederate battle flag as an emblem and its claim to be a continuance of the Confederate cause.
"These guys don't stand for anything I stand for," said Tim McCown of Jefferson, Md. "And it's time we disengage our flag from what they stand for."
Representatives of the national Sons of Confederate Veterans also came to protest the Klan's efforts to identify with the Confederacy. In a nearby park, churches and other groups held a Unity Day rally.
Gettysburg resident Steve Alexander, 52, shouted himself hoarse from the barricades, calling the Klansmen cowards and worse.
"I'm sick and tired of this," Alexander said.
Good for them.
