There is a story in today’s paper about the possibility of a KKK rally being held in our community.

Never again did we think in our lifetime that we would see a story on the Klan that was not talking about some historical event, but a real-time event about the white supremacist group.

This is a group that, throughout their history, have represented the very worst about the human spirit of our country. And they do this while espousing family values and Christian ideals, twisting the very meaning of these ideals.

You might ask why we would even run a story about such a group.

We cover them because it is news. Because it is better to shine a light on the ugly parts of our society head on rather than let them operate in darkness. We produce many stories from time to time that leave a bad taste in our mouths, but we do it because we are a newspaper that tries its best to report all news — good or bad.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 186 Klan groups in existence in our country today. In our opinion that’s 186 groups too many.

Groups like the Klan and other hate groups are opportunists at heart. They prey on fear and on anger.

They also prey on easy, lazy thinking.

It’s easy to blame one group or ethnicity for all the problems and ills in society and to think your group would be just fine if it weren’t for everybody else. But, it’s also just as easy to paint hate groups as "them" or "the other," to relegate them to the dustbins of history and to avoid the real work of asking where these groups come from and why they exist in the first place.

To belong to a hate group like this takes no brains and shows no respect for the privilege of being a U.S. citizen, a privilege that millions of our countryman have died to protect.

If this group in fact shows itself in May here in Rockdale County, local leaders encourage the community not to react to such an event and not to "fuel the fire." Those who desire to protest their presence, do so with respect and dignity for yourselves. Do not lower yourself to the level of those that call themselves members of the KKK.