Defying the Ku Klux Klan- By Gary Rief

     The Ku Klux Klan has caused many problems all over the United States since 1865 where the first Klan was formed. Racism has gotten a lot better and has decreased in the twenty first century, although the Ku Klux Klan still exists and has meetings and rally's from time to time all over the country. The media has helped destroy the Klan and its inhumane acts of terror. It has torn them apart and has scared many members with many of the comments that have been put in newspapers and has been all over the television. For an example, "An eagerness to harness the power of visual images." The newspapers relied heavily on their cartoons so they could get their message across.

Besides cartoons from newspapers there were many protests that the media covered regarding the extermination of the Ku Klux Klan. The media paid its debt to society by having many disputes with the KKK and the government for being trashed on all the time. I strongly believe that the KKK should have been eliminated many years ago. It has died out a lot, although the country still has many hate crimes toward all races and the KKK still have their few meetings and rally's a year. The media always hears about it, informs the police, and that is the end of the KKK in that area. I witnessed an attempt of a KKK rally in Mahopac, New York about five years ago. I was a sophomore in high school going to watch my high school football team play a playoff game where we couldn't get out of our cars and couldn't get all the way to the field to the main parking lot. There were men in white sheets being arrested and placed on a police bus, there were news crews everywhere. I wonder how they found out about it, the media were scattered everywhere and the most sad part about the KKK attempting a Rally was they tried having it at Mahopac high school. That was nothing less then outrageous and thank God the New York State Troopers came and took care of it. The KKK is an embarrassment to the United States and should be eliminated over the next few years; as long as the media keep on ruining them like they have been for the last one hundred and forty five years.
    



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