North Carolina Cross Burnings.....

[Honeykiss1974]

Cross burnings investigated in North Carolina
Thursday, May 26, 2005 Posted: 8:34 AM EDT (1234 GMT)


DURHAM, North Carolina (AP) -- Three large crosses were burned in separate spots around the city during a span of just over an hour, and yellow fliers with Ku Klux Klan sayings were found at one location, police said.

The cross burnings Wednesday night marked the first time in recent memory that one of the South's most notorious symbols of racial hatred has been seen in the city.

"At this day and time, I thought we'd be beyond that," said Mayor Bill Bell. "People do things for different reasons, and I don't have the slightest idea why anyone would do this."

read article here

[preciousjeni]

[DeltaSigStan]

I just picked my mom up from the airport, after she spent a week in Durham.................

[Tom Earp]

May they find and prosecute the scum who did this!

Friggen Idiots!

[Jill1228]

I am too thru!

[Optimist Prime]

that is a whole lot of crazy

if they're christian why do they burn crosses?

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by Optimist Prime
if they're christian why do they burn crosses?

Indeed.

[RACooper]

Originally posted by Optimist Prime
that is a whole lot of crazy

if they're christian why do they burn crosses?

It's unfortunately "borrowed" from Scottish culture - ironicall yfrom Jacobite/Catholic Scottish culture for the most part.

The significance of using a burning cross was to announce that the Clan, and perhaps all Clans, where under threat from an "outside" source - the cross also more or less stating the need to put aside inter-Clan conflict and rally together to repell the threat from outsiders/heathens (Jacobites considered all non-Catholics heathens).

In order to gather/rally the Clan a messenger would be sent running with a burnt cross (sometimes dipped in blood to signify dire peril to all the Clans) - further the rallying point for the Clan would be marked by a large burning cross on a hill near the rally-point.

I'm sure you can draw the symbolic paralells... the ironic part I mentioned earlier is that the burning of the cross would have traditional be directed against the very people using it now.

[Optimist Prime]

that makes me sad

but brings a question...are the KKK evil or stupid? Or both? they screw up the symbols and mispell their own name. And then walk around with big felt dunce caps. I wonder if I dressed all in black, and started shooting at klan members, if anyone would really mind.

[DeltAlum]

I would certainly not contend that this was not a KKK event, but often when something like this happens out of the blue it is done by a bunch of "wannabes."

Which of course doesn't make it any less distasteful.

[hoosier]

Durham - home of Duke Univ. and a lot of high schools.

If we could pin this on someone, my high choices would be a HS graduation prank or some Duke GLO (hopefully not the new DTD bunch).

[honeychile]

Originally posted by RACooper
It's unfortunately "borrowed" from Scottish culture - ironicall yfrom Jacobite/Catholic Scottish culture for the most part.

The significance of using a burning cross was to announce that the Clan, and perhaps all Clans, where under threat from an "outside" source - the cross also more or less stating the need to put aside inter-Clan conflict and rally together to repell the threat from outsiders/heathens (Jacobites considered all non-Catholics heathens).

In order to gather/rally the Clan a messenger would be sent running with a burnt cross (sometimes dipped in blood to signify dire peril to all the Clans) - further the rallying point for the Clan would be marked by a large burning cross on a hill near the rally-point.

I'm sure you can draw the symbolic paralells... the ironic part I mentioned earlier is that the burning of the cross would have traditional be directed against the very people using it now.

Since we agree so often I thought it wise to thank you for the history lesson.

I find this completely despicable & cowardly, and certainly hope that the idiots who did this are found and prosecuted to the furtherest extent of the law.

[Rio_Kohitsuji]

Originally posted by RACooper
It's unfortunately "borrowed" from Scottish culture - ironicall yfrom Jacobite/Catholic Scottish culture for the most part.

The significance of using a burning cross was to announce that the Clan, and perhaps all Clans, where under threat from an "outside" source - the cross also more or less stating the need to put aside inter-Clan conflict and rally together to repell the threat from outsiders/heathens (Jacobites considered all non-Catholics heathens).

In order to gather/rally the Clan a messenger would be sent running with a burnt cross (sometimes dipped in blood to signify dire peril to all the Clans) - further the rallying point for the Clan would be marked by a large burning cross on a hill near the rally-point.

I'm sure you can draw the symbolic paralells... the ironic part I mentioned earlier is that the burning of the cross would have traditional be directed against the very people using it now.

Somehow, someway, I'm going to incorporate this in a social studies lesson.

[RACooper]

Originally posted by Rio_Kohitsuji
Somehow, someway, I'm going to incorporate this in a social studies lesson.

Feel free... it'll mean that all those Celtic Studies classes did something outside of the field.

For historical instances of the Burning/Burnt Cross in Scotland look to the Jacobite campaign of 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie and all that...