posted on September 25, 2004 06:23:21 PM
Sep 25, 7:53 PM EDT
Associated Press Writer
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (AP) -- About 100 white supremacists rallied at Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday as nearly twice as many opponents heckled them from a nearby hillside.
Both groups were outnumbered by federal law enforcement officers. National Park Service spokesman Phil Sheridan said no arrests were made at the rally site, but one person was arrested after a scuffle in a parking lot.
Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members shouted slogans from a stage at the park, where about 11,000 Revolutionary War soldiers commanded by George Washington camped from December 1777 to June 1778.
The Minnesota-based National Socialist Movement, which sponsored the rally, claims Washington held separatist and anti-Semitic views - a position disputed by most historians.
The event was held on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Rally organizers have said they were unaware of the holiday when they planned the event.
Still, Jeff Schoep, commander of the NSM, launched the rally with an attack on Jews, who he said planned "the destruction of all races through the evils of race mixing."
Other speakers criticized America's role in the Iraq war, calling it "Israel's War."
Counter-demonstrators in a cordoned-off area several hundred feet away shouted "Bull!" and waved placards with slogans such as, "Get out of our melting pot."
Noah Osner, 25, said he joined the counter protest to show there are people willing to stand up against racism.
"I think hate begets hate," he said. "I think it's scary to see such a volume of hate in one small area."
This is a thread about bigotry, and the ugliness of it.
posted on September 25, 2004 06:52:05 PM
This coming from someone who posts all those anti-religious threads... look in the mirror pal... you're no different then what you started this thread about.
