Is South Central IL Klan territory?

[pstokely]

This dachshund breeder has puppies with confederate flags on their site.

http://www.kdachs.com/

[benny05]

1. These pups deserve a better life

I say someone ought to rescue them. I have 2 pooches already, or I would. This is silliness, but enough to garner attention from us.

[Critters2]

2. There are some wingnuts there, but not everyone

I served a church there that was an even split red/blue. Much better than the suburban church I served before that--where the senior pastor told me "Never tell anyone you're a Democrat". Went out and bought a donkey bumper sticker the next day. And caught crap for it for three years.

So, in answer to your question....Not particularly.

on edit...Define "South Central".

[mopinko]

3. lots of folks in illinois consider themselves southerners

and i would assume there are some klansmen, or whatever around. after all, rush limbaugh was raised barely across the river. i can tell you something else about these people- they are dishonest. to use the word adopt, to talk about adoption, but to say the the "adoption fee" varies according to the color, markings, etc of the puppy, i mean, give me a break. they are selling puppies, period.

[Critters2]

10. I don't know anyone downstate who considers themself "Southerners"

I was raised in Kewanee, and we were proud of the two underground railroad houses in town. My relatives in Champaign County consider the Civil War an act of treason by the South.

Have you ever been outside Chicago?

[grace0418]

35. I know several folks from places like Carmi, Hoopston, Danville, Riverton

and even Champaign who very much identify with a southern mindset. I'm glad you and your family don't feel the same but that doesn't make the statement without merit.

[madrchsod]

4. late again--any thing south of I-80

is considered the "south". there are klans people everywhere in illinois

[Critters2]

11. Bull shit

We have hot and cold running water and libraries south of Interstate 80. You should visit some time!

[davsand]

5. That is 618 area code. That is south of I-70.

I'd actually call that Southern Illinois, personally. (Take THAT you Chicago-centric snobs!) :evilgrin:

Illinois does have some pretty interesting history when it comes to race relations. Southern Illinois was very much split in the Civil War, in fact, there was a term for southern sympathizers back then, "Copperheads."


Learn a bit about the 1864 politics of Illinois here:
http://dig.lib.niu.edu/civilwar/narrative7.html

or here:
http://www.egyptianaaa.org/SI-History2.htm

A lot of these groups later morphed into the KKK:

http://www.illinoishistory.com/kkk.html

Sorry to get so link heavy here, but yeah, there IS a KKK tie to Southern Illinois in some areas, and it is historically documented.

In actual fact, I suspect part of it now is more habitual support rather than a full blown hate, but I could be an optimist too. Some of those folks are pretty creepy, some aren't. There are the "gomers" and there are the folks who just happen to live there--ya know?

I do remember seeing some Confederate flags down in Marion last time I drove (three hours) to go down there, but they were in places like gas stations and truckers' restaurants. They were sharing shelf space with the "Calvin pissing on something" window stickers that rednecks seem to love so much...

I'd probably look for a rescue doggie of it was me--are there any rescue groups for that breed?


Laura

[mopinko]

6. this came up in a thread by benburch, i believe

he said all the doxy rescues insisted on a fenced yard, and he didn't have one. my experience with animal rescue is that they are a magnet for untreated mentally ill people. not to say that everyone who does it is crazy, just that a lot of them are. terrier rescue wouldn't give me a dog for the same reason. although i have a large-by-city-standards fenced yard, it was not "terrier proof". never mind that there is no such thing really, or at least not this side of fort knox.
i just wish more dog pounds did web cams. i got a boxer from the city pound last year. she is the sweetest thing. and they were very glad to find her a home.
rescue can be a shining example of people making the perfect the enemy of the good. i do not blame folks who want to start with a well raised pup.

[davsand]

8. "...they are a magnet for untreated mentally ill people..."

Mo, that just made me have to clean my computer screen. Thankfully, I keep a pack of Windex wipes by the computer.

I know exactly what you are talking about with that one, because some of those folks may have kind hearts but they are a few bricks shy of a full load. I know a few sane rescue people (our local Rottie Rescue group mostly seems to be fairly functional) but there are some that are just straight off Neptune.

To be honest, even a trip to our local Humane Society is a crap-shoot if you are looking for normalcy or even common sense. When we decided to adopt a cat I started going in there to look for a cat that I thought would work out for us. I was screening for temperament--period.

I explained when I went in that I was screening for temperament. I ex pained that I'd had a rescue that had been very aggressive and that with my young daughter, the new cat needed to be one that could live with the entire family. I wasn't asking THEM to screen for me--I needed to do that.

I got treated to about a thirty minute lecture on cat behavior. What really torqued me was the fact that this kid had no freaking clue about cat behavior or even diet (she admitted to a lack of knowledge when I pointed out to her that she was wrong about letting most cats have milk...) THEN the "lecture" turned into a discussion of DID we really even NEED or want a cat.

I have lived with cats my entire life. I have worked with ferals, I have lived with rescues, I have hand/bottle raised kittens. I am not a person unfamiliar with cats or their behaviors, and I was pissed off to be lectured by some 17 year old volunteer who questioned if my household was "suitable" for a cat.

She went on to start the typical PETA lecture that companion animals are mistreated because they are not feral any more.

I walked out.

We did go back, and we did it on another day when there was a different set of volunteers working. I took Material Girl with me and we found a cat that is one of the most mellow animals I have ever known. We got the type of animal that we wanted but we had to WORK at it.

It is WRONG that it is so difficult to navigate the crap when you want to adopt an animal.

Yep, Mo, you me me spit out my coffee. There ARE some very real wackaloons in the pet adoption world.



Laura

[mopinko]

9. terrier rescue was quite a trip

i was upfront that i wanted a mouser. oy vey. i was treated like i was looking for dog fight bait. or a science project. honestly.
rat terrier rescue had 2 dogs in foster care, not only wouldn't give one to me, but came out, grilled me, and never called me back, or answered my emails. even the foster mom couldn't/wouldn't tell me why.
even at a suburban city pound. they wouldn't even let you touch them till you filled out the paperwork, and met the social worker. and they flat out refused to let me take a nice little fella.
they seemed to think that if they didn't hunt, i was going to eat them.

[Critters2]

12. Wow, did we have different experiences!

CCHS actually GAVE me Spartacus--no charge. They knew I wanted him, they thought he was too old to find anyone else. They gave him to me. No lecture, no nothing. Just proof that I could have a dog where I lived, and they weren't too concerned about that.

And he was such a great dog!!

[davsand]

29. The old CCHS Shelter Manager was my Maid of Honor.

She was gone from there and working as an Animal Control Officer before Kev and I got married, but I used to know a lot of the folks who worked and volunteered with that shelter. They loved the animals and they did the best they could with limited money.

Now, they seem to have more funding and maybe some different attitudes. There has been a lot of ringworm coming out of that shelter, along with other issues. While I do not blame the entire staff, I do think that there have been some very real issues in that shelter for the past few years. (Be sure to ask me sometime about our own outbreak of ringworm when Chaucer the cat came home with us. After that episode I started asking some questions and was not too happy with what I learned.))

Animal Care got bad enough that Champaign County chose not to renew the animal care contract with the CCHS. The County Animal Control now has its own building where animals are kept. One of our County Board members (Nancy Greenwalt) who was a breeder of some lovely Collies did a lot of work to help set up that new County Facility.

There is a different Shelter Manager now--they just got her on board in the last year or so, and I'm hoping they can correct some of the issues.

Regards!


Laura

[Critters2]

33. Things have changed. And, in fact, it seems like I heard some of this

in the humane society grapevine when I was doing humane work in Iowa. Yeah, there was something about another group--SHARK, maybe--going after CCHS for abuse and hygiene issues and what not. I don't doubt that a shelter Nancy was involved with would be great! I learned lots about dogs from her.

So now you know...I'm easy...give me a free dog, and I'll say nice things about you. He was a great dog, though.


And on the ringworm issue.....:scared:

[Baltimore]

34. Copperheads

In Maryland we called them "dogfaces" before the war, "copperheads" after the war actually started. There was a girl here in Champaign who was saying "The South wasn't fighting for slavery, they just wanted independence from the North," and I said, "In my original home state, we call that dogface propaganda."

[dogman]

7. Take a look.

http://www.tolerance.org/maps/hate/state.jsp?S=IL&m=4
They're all over the state. I've met members in and around Aurora.

[Critters2]

13. Color me suspicious

but that map has a swatika practically on my house...yet none of the communities listed are anywhere near here. If they don't know geography any better than that, I wonder what else they're pulling out of their ass.

And putting the JDL and the Black Panthers in the same category as the Klan is a bit of a stretch.

Besides, for a state this large, that really is fewer hate groups than one might expect.And the majority--contrary to the generalizations offered elsewhere in this thread--are in metro Chicago.

What the hell is going on up there North of 80?

[dogman]

14. Southern Poverty Law Center is reputable but

one man's insurgency is another man's patriot some times. I thought some JDL members were in prison for activity in California, and the New Black Panther Party was involved in charges of threatening Bobby Rush, I think. There are millions of people North of 80. Percentages would make more nuts likely.

[Critters2]

15. Crazies downstate are just crazy. Crazies in Chicago are a statistical

anomaly. I'm sure.

Please. I've been to the Western Suburbs. Are they even letting people of color into those places, yet? You know, the land of Dennis Hastert and Henry Hyde.

But all the crazies are downstate. :eyes:

[dogman]

16. There are changes happening but housing prices and property taxes

still dictate who lives where. The Chicago Housing Authority is tearing down the high rises. They are being replaced with mixed housing. It finally occurred to people that some of the land the projects were built on is valuable. They are sending the residents to smaller housing units throughout the surrounding county by subsidizing their rent. The Hispanic population is rising but seems to be restricted to certain cities. The land of Hyde has changed a lot and the land of Hastert is converting from cornfields to subdivisions. Actually the land of Hastert is called downstate by the Chicago media. I assure sure you, there is an ample amount of crazies everywhere. I work where the population is high because that's where the money is but I retreat to my rural home and enjoy the quiet.

[Critters2]

17. Me, I value quiet over money

Which is why, one day, I'll leave the land of subdivisions.

[greatauntoftriplets]

18. I live in the western suburbs of Chicago....

and am represented by Danny Davis, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Remember, most of the people in Illinois who vote Democratic live north of I-80.

:eyes:

[Critters2]

19. Not all of' em, though

and that attitude doesn't help you to win hearts and minds south of 80. Or did you know we're allowed to vote now?

On edit...In the context of this thread, I would point out, once again, that most of the Klansmen and Neo-Nazis are also North of Interstate 80: 15 out of 20 groups for which a location is given.

[greatauntoftriplets]

20. Most.

n/t

[Critters2]

21. Yep, most

I'm not a bit surprised that most of the Illinois Nazis are in the Chicago area. I knew some of these when I was at ISU. Happily, they did their stint in Normal and then headed back north. You can have 'em.

[greatauntoftriplets]

22. Happily...

I have never known any Illinois Nazis. You are welcome to the Klans people down your way. I have never known any of them, either.

[Critters2]

32. Ah, but they're not down our way

They're up your way! And all your generalizations about downstate Illinois won't change that.

[Radical Activist]

25. Illinois Nazis

I hate Illinois Nazis

[davsand]

26. One of my favorite lines from Blues Brothers!

Makes me laugh every time.

:rofl:


Radical Activist:

Hey--good to see you around these parts! I've not seen you lately, I guess, but it is still a good thing to run across you on here!


Laura

[Radical Activist]

24. Martin Luther King had some things to say about Chicago.

“Bottles and bricks were thrown at us; we were often beaten. I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I had never seen, even in Mississippi, mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as in Chicago.”

[WildEyedLiberal]

23. There are racist wackadoos everywhere

:shrug:

[davsand]

27. You got it. Stupid is universal.

I'm a downstater, and I fully recognize that a lot of folks view all of us as a bunch of hicks wearing bib overalls, with no shoes, while chewin on an oat straw.

It is not true.

It is also not true for me to say that anybody from north of Kankakee is a snob with no manners and a piss poor attitude.

This little hick has seen Chicago a "few" times, and traveled around downstate some too. I can tell you I've met and liked any number of folks anyplace I go. I've also met some people that supported the stereotypes.

Stupid hateful people can grow anywhere--no matter the population density or the proximity to the Mason Dixon line. I honestly think Illinois, as a whole, is probably a bit better off than some places, and probably nowhere near as enlightened as we need to be.


Laura

[WildEyedLiberal]

28. As am I

I'm from a much more rural county than Champaign, so going to the U of I is like big city living for me! :D

And you know, even in my small rural farm town of 4500 people, we had running water, modern clothing, and literacy. My parents are as small town - and as raging liberal - as you can get. Amazing, huh?

Seriously though, Illinois is a great state. Downstate is what I know and what I love, though (despite how dull it can be).

[kevsand]

30. I have lived (at various stages in my life) in the Illinois towns of:

E. St. Louis, Waterloo, Fairview Heights, Charleston, Champaign, Bloomington, Chicago Heights, Urbana, and Royal. There was significantly noticeable racism in all of these places and their surrounding communities. In fact, the racism in the south suburbs of Chicago was among the worst I have seen anywhere, and I have seen some pretty awful shit. Chicago is not unique, nor is southern Illinois. They both have a long way to go...

[mopinko]

31. all human kind is inclined to hate the other

eom.