I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...
... what would you do when faced with the protesting Aryan Nation on the battlefield at Gettysburg, as was to have happened back home this very afternoon? After all, freedom of speech is a fundamental right that is protected in this country, but to see white supremacists spewing venom and vitriol near the site where the Emancipation Proclamation was read aloud surely has to make one stop and reconsider. If yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre is not permitted speech, surely yelling "all non-white, non-Christians will burn in hell" has an aspect of fire that some smart lawyer can connect in front of a sympathetic judge to silence them.
Interestingly enough, the community seems split in how this issue should be handled. Some, wanting to demonstrate that intolerance will not be allowed, planned to counter-protest, necessitating a safety zone to be created between the Aryans (big A Aryan that is, since there can most certainly be blond haired blue eyed folks NOT supporting the "nation") and those demanding to exercise their free speech rights to be anti-Aryan Nation. Others say "ignore them" and have created "diversity day" events away from the scheduled protest, with the belief that engaging "them" gives "them and their extremism" value. You'll recognize this second group of people out in the public ignoring their children as a parenting technique (they just want attention, don't give it to them and they'll shut themselves up, they say).
[Side note: the exact site for today's hatred rally appears to be at the Cyclorama building -- which is subject to its own protests (and lawsuits) now that the famous painting (how many of you back in PA saw it on a school field trip or two?) has been moved to a new visitor center, leaving the building itself standing hollow and empty. That post-modern less-than-civil battle is over whether the structure can be razed or whether it itself (sans famous artwork) is a historical monument. Architectualists, unite!]
Choosing controversial locations to proudly hate on others is textbook "we have no soul but we do have freedom of speech/no press is bad press" (a la demon-military-funeral- protester-Freddie-Phelps), but these Aryans have just gone too far in selecting this historic site. We all know the fourscore and seven years ago part , but let's not each of us forget the call to action in the final sentences of Lincoln's address:
"It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us [...] that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
People (of, by and for) -- speak now or run the risk of forever holding their swastikas! Exercise your right to speak freely!!
LOCAL NEWS COVERAGE OF A COMMUNITY PREPARING FOR THE "RALLY":
http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_15254287
CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE CYCLORAMA BUILDING:
http://www.mission66.com/cyclorama/index.html
LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS (A CALL TO ACTION):
http://library.thinkquest.org/26451/contents/writtenword/gettysburg.html
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