connecting*the*dots

Steve Gilliard passed away today after a long recovery battle following open heart surgery.

If you weren’t a reader of The News Blog, let me give you a sense of Steve’s voice.

He wasn’t a fucking apologist.

Steve took a concrete position on practically every issue that came across his desk, and more often than not he was spot on, bulldozing double-talk, bullshit policy and spin across the board.

I never met Steve in person, yet it feels like I lost a close friend today.

You’ll be missed, Steve.

Codename: Greenkil: Part 2 Escalation - pg 101 (emphasis mine)

“The pathology of the white ghetto� is what southern philosopher Reverend Will Campbell calls it (the culture from which the contemporary Klan is drawn). It is the same kind of antisocial behavior so prevalent in black ghettos. It is born of poverty and powerlessness, of humiliation and hopelessness. For many, the Klan and its ilk represent the only way a poor white person can say “I am somebody,� the only way he or she can escape emotionally from the economic and social wasteland of the American society. For a while, in the robes or security uniforms, they can be part of an organization that carries an aura of mystery and danger and strength.

It is a sad commentary that idealistic liberals and leftists can easily understand how socioeconomic factors produce street gangs and thugs in the black ghetto, but fail to recognize the same phenomenon among poor whites who join the Klan. To liberals, blacks are oppressed and exploited; the whites are hate-filled and despicable. No one in his right mind would consider daring a Chicago street gang to “come out from under your rocks and face the wrath of the people.� Yet that is precisely the challenge the WVO issued to the Klan in mid-October.�

I read Codename: Greenkil after participating in a discussion on Ed Cone’s blog a few weeks back, where I felt a bit uninformed regarding the full context surrounding the events of 11/3/79. The first 100 pages were chock full of solid information regarding the background and motivation of participants on both sides of the conflict.

Unfortunately, page 101 proved to be the end of objective research, and the beginning of a pointed perspective.