Saturday, August 10, 2013

Oklahoma Turnpike Named After Klan Member

"Tulsa delays vote on road tied to KKK" by Justin Juozapavicius |  Associated Press, August 10, 2013

TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa City Council has postponed a vote on whether to rename a street named for a town founder who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and has been implicated in a deadly race riot nearly a century ago.

This poses problems because so many things in AmeriKa are named after native Americans who were slaughtered in the holocaust that founded this country. I'm surrounded by them, in fact, the town next door is named after a Captain William Turner in honor of his butchering of 500 innocent women and children at a nearby watering hole along the Connecticut River. It's described as a great victory against savages on the plaque commemorating his marching route.

Dozens of residents spoke at the almost three-hour hearing Thursday, with a majority saying a change was needed to shake perceptions that the city is still racially divided. Supporters of changing Brady Street outnumbered opponents of the name switch nearly 40-8 as they addressed the council.

Do what you want with the name of the street; however, I have noticed the jewspaper likes to throw several stories of racial division at you every day. 

I don't even believe in the Klan anymore. I think the KKK is a front group for the FBI so they can keep that domestic threat alive. I'm not saying there are not racists out there; I'm just saying it's no longer an organized thing -- especially with government snooping collecting every communication and movement. Things happen now because government lets them happen.

The street’s namesake, Wyatt Tate Brady, was a shoe salesman who became a prominent Tulsa businessman. He signed the city’s incorporation papers, started a newspaper, and pumped his wealth into promoting Tulsa.

This raises another troublesome question in that so many American heroes like this are guilty of something. Truman was a virulent racist, but a product of the times. So many heroic Americans that had flaws were a product of their times. The South was no doubt built by guys like this, but whatever. I'm sure the name of the street is the most important item occurring in Oklahoma right now.

But Brady was also a member of the Klan. New questions arose after a magazine article looked at whether he was involved in the most notorious event in Tulsa history: a 1921 race riot that left some 300 black residents dead. 

I skipped over the lack part because I just see dead people and lost souls.

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