Usually this article on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is about one of two things. If it isn’t about a food item that you might want to consider for your Thanksgivng meal it is always about the Ole Miss vs. LSU football game that is always the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

This weekend, as happy as I was about the outcome of the game, there was an incident that marred the event and was, as far as I’m concerned, embarrassing for school, our state and the South in general.

This story actually begins several months ago and involves a song. The Ole Miss band plays a song titled From “Dixie with Love,” it is a blend of the song “Dixie” and the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Ironic isn’t it that a song that blends a predominately Confederate song with a predominately Union song is at the heart of the issue?

At the end of the song for years the chant has been “the South will rise again.” Several weeks ago the new Ole Miss chancellor asked the student body to help stop that phrase from being said. It was decided that the phrase has negative racial connotations and is not in good taste.

The students and pretty much the rest of the crowd disagreed and true to his word Chancellor Jones told the band they could no longer play the song.

Tempers flared, alumni and students voiced their displeasure; the Chancellor stood firm and before we knew it the word was out, and we had uninvited guests coming to campus to give us their two cents.

Yes, Virginia, there is still a Klu Klux Klan in the South. In this day and time I just find it ludicrous that these robe-wearing hate-mongering men still roam the streets. So, on Saturday a group of about 10 to 12 Klansmen faced a crowd of about 250 students and football fans to express their opinion in the matter.

Naturally since then I have heard and read from many people their outrage that UM allowed the Klan on campus.

You have to remember that UM is a state owned, public university. And like all universities is an advocate for the freedom of speech. And, unfortunately and much to my disgust, that include the boys in sheets. They went through the correct channels in the correct amount of time and requested a permit to gather and protest in the “free-speech zone.”

Another thing I disagree with is when the media forgets to give both sides of a situation. It looks really bad when on national television they flash up a picture of these men speaking and then the headlines read “kkk rally held at Ole Miss.”

I’m sorry that you might not have seen the students, both black and white, gathered to counter-protest the Klan’s visit. I hope you read the story in The Clarion Ledger where a military man in uniform was quoted as saying “real men don’t wear sheets.” On a lighter note, I’m sorry you didn’t see all the Rebel and Tiger fans standing all intermixed booing the Klan or hear when a Tiger fan yelled out “Go to hell KKK” and the entire crowd broke into a cheer. You would have to know that is a saying they typically saved for Ole Miss and it was the only time that day that the two groups cheered for the same thing!

It’s done and the Klan has slithered off to wash and press their robes tobring out the next time they are angered by something, and we are left with a marred image that affects not only the university, our students or state, but our region, too.

While I am an advocate of free speech, I also believe that people have to take responsibility for what it is that they say. If I believed in something so fiercely that I would protest in public for it, I would do it with my face visible to the crowd. When we look at pictures of the Klan we should think one word, coward. And cowards don’t deserve the attention that they have received.

Christina Hall writes a weekly column for The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at christina.hall@natchezdemocrat.com.