Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 3, 1993 TAG: 9310030018
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA LENGTH: Medium
Starting Monday, the program can be seen by the 38,000 subscribers of Lower Bucks (County) Cablevision, based in Levittown, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia.
But the supremacist group, the USA Nationalist Party, plans to have its program shown on other public-access channels in Philadelphia and the suburbs.
"We're going to open up a different realm of things, things that are hush-hush," said Harry Heriegel Jr., 33, a part-time bar bouncer, former Klansman and a leader of the USA Nationalist Party.
"I'm not forcing anyone to watch the show. This is freedom of speech."
"There's always two sides of a story, and it's about time the other side got heard," said Barry Black, Grand Dragon of the Keystone Knights, a Klan group, and an invited guest on the show.
The USA Nationalist Party is one of several burgeoning, far-right groups who extol the superiority of whites, and are opposed to minorities, homosexuals and Jews.
The group, based in the Northeast, is made up of former and current Klansmen, neo-Nazis, skinheads, white supremacists, separatists and others who are "fed up" with affirmative action, busing and related issues, Heriegel said.
Although he declined to give membership figures, such groups have been on the increase in recent years, according to published reports by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and the Klanwatch Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.
When the USA Nationalist Party announced plans to hold an anti-gay rally in Bucks County, Pa., the Bucks County Peace Center and other groups banded into a Unity Coalition, said Barbara Simmons, head of the Peace Center. Other members include the NAACP, synagogues, churches and community groups.
The coalition plans a counter-demonstration on Nov. 6 when the white supremacists march in New Hope and rally at nearby Washington Crossing Park, she said.
The coalition also plans to put on its own cable show on the public-access station to counter the supremacist message, she said. This Monday, the half-hour program will be "Free to Be," a pre-taped show produced by the Anti-Defamation League that extols racial, ethnic and religious diversity, she said. Eventually, the coalition hopes to produce a local show, she said. "They're preaching hate," said Simmons of the supremacists. "We have to respond to it."
by CNB