Kross Out!

JUST AS CINCINNATI THOUGHT IT MIGHT LIVE DOWN the embarrassing Marge Schott affair came yet another specter of bigotry: taking advantage of a federal court decision that forced the city to permit a huge Hanukkah menorah in a public square, the Ku Klux Klan erected a tit-for-tat wooden cross nearby. Though this particular cross was not afire, its sponsorship by the hate group inflamed local opinion. A day before its erection, hundreds gathered in a candlelit protest. Hours after the appearance of the Klan krucifix, a pair of demonstrators toppled and trampled on it — but the Klan had a new cross up within days. Meanwhile, the two vandals were arrested under the very democratic principles that a century of Klansmen have never understood.