Today's Columbia Trib features a guest column [1] from the proponent of the "Missouri Civil Rights Initiative," a group that wants to end any state-sponsored program that helps equalize opportunity for women and minorities.  The author writes:

The Missouri Civil Rights Initiative is designed to eliminate state-sponsored discrimination through race preferences and move us closer to the color-blind promise of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. ...

Groups in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado and Arizona are putting forth similar measures. These five states will attempt to do what California, Washington and Michigan already have - eliminate state-sponsored discrimination and the many divisive, dehumanizing policies formulated in the name of affirmative action.

As the author notes, Michigan passed the very same initiative that is now being proposed in Missouri.  The "only large organization" to support the Michigan initiative?  The Ku Klux Klan [2].

It's a sick bunch that tries to change our laws by relying on a small touch of latent hate combined with a wide swath of confusing, upside-down rhetoric.  But Missourians can cut through all the idiocy, no matter what the proponents say, by asking themselves this: if the Klan supports it, is it really about "eliminating discrimination"?

*Many, many thanks to CPS [3] for the work on this subject.