We live in a world full of love and hate. More and more these days, it seems people are on one side or the other. There’s very little middle ground.

One of those hate groups made their appearance last weekend in the Smith County community of Raleigh. Like most news outlets in the area, the Laurel Leader-Call was not aware of the Ku Klux Klan’s appearance on the county courthouse steps in Raleigh Saturday, Oct. 17. The one exception was the local weekly newspaper in Raleigh, the Smith County Reformer, who covered the event.

From all accounts, it was a full-blown “klan rally” with men in their hoods and robes, waving various flags — state, U.S. and the Confederate. The Reformer covered the event and shared photos with the Leader-Call. We made the decision in Saturday’s follow-up story to run two of the images.

Some people will accuse the LL-C of promoting the hatred agenda of the KKK by running the pictures, while others will say the Leader-Call is just dredging up a terrible by-gone era that no longer exists and find the photos offensive. To most of us, they are offensive and it was not an easy call. But we hope most of you will applaud the Leader-Call for running the photos and follow-up story. If this event had happened in Ellisville, Laurel, Soso or Sandersville, we certainly would have covered it and taken photos. This newspaper does not condone the actions of any hate groups, but we live in a society where there is freedom of all to speak — including the KKK. And if hate groups make a public appearance in our community, it is our responsibility to let you know.

It is our intent to inform the public every day of the week of events — good and bad — that are going on in our community. And to let you know there are still hate groups, such as this one, out there trying to divide communities rather than unite.

— The Laurel Leader-Call