I think if we attempted to find some common point of agreement that no portion of history is as simple as it seems, we could at least weed out the rationally impaired. Before focusing on the some of the specifics, let me point out that in 1987 I was given a national award by the ADL for my investigations while in law enforcement concerning the Klan and later the next year recieved one from the FBI (not that that in any way intitles my offerings any more credence than any one else - YOU must seek, find, and decide).

I have found that some intellectually rigid cowards with the "Big Keyboard, Small Dick" complex are often found on far too many internet exchanges, and as soon as the discussion turns to the complex, or the morally ambiguous, (which any human endeavor must entail), they swope down from the belfry with high pitched squeals of dismay. I suspect that they've run into the clapper too many times on the way down, or worse, on the way back up.

There were several comments about the South losing the Civil War and since I'm from West Virginia, it would take only the most ignorant from outside the US, or the most stupid from within the US, not to note that the Viginia counties, comprising what was to become West Virginia in 1863, voted to stay with the North, as each State was choosing up sides. This vote was, in many cases, extremely close. For example, Loudoun County just over the border in Virginia, voted to go with the Confederacy by just 38 votes, with the German population in the northern portion of the County almost carrying it for the North. In contrast, Jefferson County, the first county in West Virginia, and scene of John Brown's Raid, trial and execution, voted to stay with the North by some 12 votes. This region was horse country and not slave country, and was the scene of numerous cavalry engagements throughout the War. In fact the only relative of mine to die in the Civil War was from Boston, (where I was born) and died in Aldie, VA at the hands of J.P.Morgan's men in a raid (some fifty miles from here).

Secondly, over all, the South has had a far better record on race relations than most of the US. When I was living in Virginia, I was privledged to vote for Doug Wilder as the first black governor in any state in the Union, since (listen to this catch phrase) the Reconstruction. (There were 17 by my count, with virtually none of them celebrated during Black History Month - would anyone care to enlighten us as to why?). The KKK individual I mentioned in my first post, was from Reading PA ("North", for you euro types, or "Stupid" for you northern types). The current race riots are in Ohio, and the biggest collection of KKK type militia are located in Idaho and Montanna (please refer to previous comments in parentheses immediately preceding this sentence - you really must pay attention... ).

And to close for now, I was not defending Griffith's "Birth of a Nation", as I have only seen it once, and thought the use of black-faced whites in the perported role of the "Negro Rapists", was way overdone, but then so has every work I've seen by Oliver Stone and Spike Lee.

Was the Klan the first or last organization formed with what were conceived at the time as good intentions, and later devolved into something considerably more evil? I quickly evoke images of the Teamsters and Mine workers unions, the Molly McGuires, the IRA, the German Bunds, the Vigilantes,etc. And if Lord Acton was right, none of us should preclude the possibility in our own associations...