DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 2 of 2) | 1953-05-19 Burlington Hawkeye Gazette Article: "Let's Not Be So Asinine"

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Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 2 of 2)

1953-05-19 Burlington Hawkeye Gazette Article: "Let's Not Be So Asinine"

[[Top of page]]
4 Burlington, Ia., Hawk-Eye Gazette . . Tues., May 19, 1953
[[Subtitle bold, underline, italics]]Thinking Out Loud[[end bold, underline, and italics]]
[[Header in bold]]Let's Not Be So Asinine[[end bold]]
[[Article text]]
We have it on the word of a recent guest speaker in Burlington there is threat of revival of the notorious and despicable Ku Klux Klan in the Hawkeye state.
How asinine can we be? Do we have to through all that again?
Emotional and temperamental upsets are likely to occur in any human life, but the Klan era which prevailed in the early '20s throughout so much of the country was one of the most disgusting and revolting episodes the public has ever experienced.
[[Bold]]The night-shirt rangers grouped their weirdly vested klugs, kleagles, and "klucks", paraded streets, burned effigies, fired flaming crosses and boasted exultingly of 100-percent Americanism. They sought to rule by terrorism, intimidation and downright cruelty. The truth wasn't in them.[[end bold]]
The truth of the matter is there was never anything more un-American than the Ku Klux Klan, fostering its hatreds of race, color and religion. Ancestors of some of its most ardent devotees had come from the same foreign backgrounds their progenitures were damning.
Surely, Iowans have become cultured enough by now to avoid a repetition of such conduct more typical of an imbecile or a fool.  The average man who consorted with the klan 30 years ago has been so ashamed of himself ever since .. and properly so... that he won't even admit it today.

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[[Top of page]] 4 Burlington, Ia., Hawk-Eye Gazette . . Tues., May 19, 1953 [[Subtitle bold, underline, italics]]Thinking Out Loud[[end bold, underline, and italics]] [[Header in bold]]Let's Not Be So Asinine[[end bold]] [[Article text]] We have it on the word of a recent guest speaker in Burlington there is threat of revival of the notorious and despicable Ku Klux Klan in the Hawkeye state. How asinine can we be? Do we have to through all that again? Emotional and temperamental upsets are likely to occur in any human life, but the Klan era which prevailed in the early '20s throughout so much of the country was one of the most disgusting and revolting episodes the public has ever experienced. [[Bold]]The night-shirt rangers grouped their weirdly vested klugs, kleagles, and "klucks", paraded streets, burned effigies, fired flaming crosses and boasted exultingly of 100-percent Americanism. They sought to rule by terrorism, intimidation and downright cruelty. The truth wasn't in them.[[end bold]] The truth of the matter is there was never anything more un-American than the Ku Klux Klan, fostering its hatreds of race, color and religion. Ancestors of some of its most ardent devotees had come from the same foreign backgrounds their progenitures were damning. Surely, Iowans have become cultured enough by now to avoid a repetition of such conduct more typical of an imbecile or a fool. The average man who consorted with the klan 30 years ago has been so ashamed of himself ever since .. and properly so... that he won't even admit it today.