KKK-related print material found

Editor,

It is hard to believe we live in a community where recent KKK-related print materials were left in driveways of local residents of Berlin, Ocean Pines and West Ocean City.

This is an affront, not just to those who received these hate-filled, scare-mongering missives, but to all of us who live in this area and call it home.

We cannot turn a blind eye to the hatred being directed to our fellow citizens.

We must stand united and stand up for the rights of all. We must speak out against injustice when we see it, hear it, encounter it, whether it is overt or subtle.

I encourage everyone who believes in respect, kindness, honor and integrity to reach out to our community police, sheriff departments and county commissioners.

Demand that they ensure action is taken to uncover who and what organizations have taken it upon themselves to sow seeds of hatred, fear, ignorance and upheaval into our lives and our neighbors.

Follow up with them. Do not remain silent.

As German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller so movingly expressed it in 1946 after World War II:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Ann and Bob Augustine

Berlin