It’s always a bit disorienting when the voice of reason comes from the far right (remember those dizzy spells you suffered when Pat Buchanan attacked NAFTA?). But last week, the Texas League of the South condemned the attempted fire bombing of the Islamic Society in Denton, calling it a “knee-jerk, violent reaction” that “can only work to divide us as Southerners more.” That’s mighty white of them, considering that the conservative, “Southern nationalist” organization’s list of “hate groups and bigot-oriented organizations that the Texas League of the South will not keep company with” includes the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center. In fact, the League equates those groups to the Aryan Nation and the KKK.
In a press release, national League of the South President Michael Hill says, “It is long past time for the U.S. to restore a foreign policy based on vigilant neutrality, and a defense policy based truly on defense rather than imperial ambition.” He added, “Let us not forget the admonition that violence begets violence and that reaction based solely on a desire for revenge, especially against innocent foreign nationals, is unjust.”
Of course, as we saw with Buchanan, those opinions may actually make it into mainstream media as long as they come from an arch-conservative. Thus far, leftists voicing the same calls for thoughtfulness have been roundly ignored or given token airtime.
This article appears in September 21 • 2001.