>What a time for this topic to come up. On Sunday, we were driving home
>through Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Strasburg, PA), and there on the corner
>was a KKK demonstration. White robes and masks, banners and flags, the
>whole works. One sign even said that it was proven that blacks (I think
>they used a term like, "monkey-men") were inferior (probably refering to the
>bell curve book, whose exact title I don't remember).
>
>I'm still upset. Being of Pennsylvania Dutch extraction (but not Amish), my
>anscestors (and about 5 million others) fled Germany 100-200 years ago
>because of this kind of bigotry and repression. I hope that the rest of the
>German descendents of Lancaster, York, & beyond, have not forgotten their
>roots.
Me, too (on both counts). But from attitudes of my Mennonite kin, I would
suspect any KKK demonstrations in Penna more likely could be traced to the
local white trash (oops, there I go painting with a stereotypical broad
brush). The German protestors who left Europe for the freedom and peace of
Penna were (and their descendants I think still are) marked by pacificism
which would never accommodate violence against even their rejected "Yankee"
neighbors--anyone of English (or non-German) extraction. Live and let live
seems to be their motto.
John
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John M. Miller, Geophysical Institute, Univ Alaska Fairbanks
903 Koyukuk Drive, PO Box 757320, Fairbanks AK 99775-7320
voice: 907-474-7363 fax: 907-474-7689, alt fax: 907-474-7290
Internet: jmiller@gi.alaska.edu
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