Monumental controversy
The controversy surrounding the march in Charlottesville, Virginia, reminds us that hate groups, such as those advocating white supremacy, and neo-Nazi sympathizers aren't limited to other states.
The Southern Poverty Law Center says that nearly 1,000 organizations that meet its criteria as a "hate group" are active in the United States, including 40 in Pennsylvania, which has the fifth largest number of such groups. The others with more are: California, Texas, New York and Virginia.Among the hate groups identified in Pennsylvania by the SPLC are three in the five-county Times News area - The Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, a black separatist group; and Poker Face, a group that advances hatred through the lyrics of its music, both in Allentown, and East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire, a Ku Klux Klan group which lists its headquarters in Girardville, Schuylkill County.Other groups the SPLC identifies from Eastern Pennsylvania include: European American Action Coalition, a white nationalist group from Pittston; Catholic Counterpoint, a radical traditional Catholicism group from Broomall; Ku Klos Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Bally, Berks County; Shoebat Foundation, an anti-Muslim group in Newtown, Bucks County, and Baptist Church/Vatican Assassins, a general hate group from Newmanstown, Lebanon County.Also, Ku Klux Klan Nation of Islam, a black separatist group, As-Sabiqun, a general hate group; Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, a black separatist group; Keystone State Skinheads, a racist skinhead group; Traditionalist Worker Party, white nationalists; the Daily Stormers and neo-Nazis and Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, black separatists, all in Philadelphia.In addition, there are 10 groups the SPLC says operates statewide.Hate groups are defined by the SPLC as having beliefs or practices "that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable (unchangeable) characteristics."In addition, six defendants who were taken into custody in April are awaiting trial in federal court for illicit drug and gun trafficking operations to raise cash for a neo-Nazi group. Two are from the Lehigh Valley.Federal prosecutors identified Joshua Michael Steever, also known as "Hatchet," of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, as the ringleader of the group, which met from time to time in Phillipsburg, Potter County, and in other rural areas of Pennsylvania.The feds said the group's goal was to raise money and get a cache of guns to support Aryan Strikeforce, a white nationalist organization that Steever founded. He said the objective of the organization is to "protect the honor of our women, children and the future of our race and nation." He said he and his followers would use violence if necessary to achieve their goals, the feds said.Federal agents infiltrated the group, providing members with fake drugs, and the so-called buyers of the weapons Steever wanted to sell turned out to be members of a federal strike force.The scheduled removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from a city park was the presumed focal point of the protest and counterprotest in Charlottesville. That event has led to calls to remove other Civil War statues from cities throughout the South. Interestingly enough, a Confederate soldier is depicted in the iconic monument at Seventh and Hamilton streets in Allentown, but he is alongside a Union soldier as a symbol of reconciliation and unity following the Civil War. The monument was erected in 1899 and is believed to be the only municipal monument in northern states that honors a Confederate soldier.According to local historians, the monument's designer, William Watson, wanted to symbolize a coming together of the North and the South after learning that Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler had commanded American soldiers during the Spanish-American War a year earlier.During the statue's dedication, former U.S. Rep. and Lehigh County attorney Constantine J. Erdman, said Gallagher's statue was "an enduring tribute to the valor and patriotism of our soldiers so that the memory of great and mighty deeds may never fade, yet with no tinge of bitterness against the one-time foe."By Bruce Frassinelli |