Ghosts of Gettysburg now wearing sheets?!

photo by Jeffrey B. Roth, used with permission

Today, June 28, 2014, on the battlefield in Gettysburg, near Meade's headquarters, south of Gettysburg, across from the Soldiers National Cemetery on Taneytown Rd., a tiny rally was held.

I have investigated many haunted locations in Gettysburg. I have experienced many paranormal phenomena, but this was scarier than any investigation I have ever been on.

 The meager group of sheet-clad people included seven men and three women wearing funny hats, some in odd masks, some of the robes with horizontal stripes, some white, some red, some purple. One figure held a megaphone, with strange shouting and ranting coming from his mouth; vile, depraved, hateful language.

I have heard some threatening EVPs in my time as an investigator.  I have even heard voices on EVPs swear, curse and threaten, but this was the stuff of ghostly nightmares. The voices coming from the robed figures roared hate, and invited us to join in on the fun.

No, this wasn't a haunting on the battlefield. This was a KKK rally. The Gettysburg Park Service must allow permits for a rally to any group that applies. It's a first amendment, free speech issue, which I understand. I was there to accompany a reporter who was assigned to cover the story for Reuters. However, I felt inexplicably guilty for being physically present at such an event. I wanted to fade away like a phantom.

The small congregation seemed lost in the huge field in which they stood, all grouped together, flags flying behind them in the soft summer breeze.  The group was fenced off from the people, and were standing as far away from the spectators as they could possibly get. The fencing was fragile-looking, designed not to keep people out but to keep whatever lay within. The group was backed up against the fence like they had been corralled there by an unseen force.  It was like a ghost rally from the far distant and not so proud past, when KKK rallys were common, and large, and very scary.

 The organization has shrunk in modern times to a mere shadow of it's former self. Unfortunately, it is possible that they have been replaced by more tech-savvy, Internet-sophisticated, contemporary hate groups. I do not know.  The hate speech wasn't really a speech or a presentation. It was more an improvised rant. It was a bit comforting to hear that they pretty much hate everyone equally. Just about every group made it onto their hate list, including both political parties and all non-white groups. Every rant was randomly punctuated by cries of "white power!" I wondered as I  watched this creepy spectral spectacle , are there really any pure, 100% Caucasians in existence?

I realized that I was attending a hate rally held on the grounds of one of the bloodiest battles fought in the history of America, all in the name of hate. The irony did not escape me.

I have always disliked paranormal investigators who provoked the spirits by name calling, threatening, and being nasty. I wonder, can powerful and persistent hatred expressed and proudly played out in front of stupefied onlookers, provoke the spirits of past hate? Will Gettysburg be unsettled tonight, the spirits of the dead in battle provoked to rage at this latest manifestation of renewed, 21st century evil?

Link to article by Jeffrey B. Roth :
http://www.examiner.com/article/reporters-outnumber-ku-klux-klan-at-rally-on-gettysburg-battlefield