In mid August the Eccentric received a hand-written post-card invitation to cover a Klan rally in Harper's Ferry on September 8.

Politely phrased ("Dear Ladies and Gentlemen") the invitation was issued in the name of the Grand Wizard of "We the People White Knights of the American Golden Circle of the Ku Klux Klan," Glenville, Pennsylvania

A quick check of the web revealed many stories about a small rally held in 2006, but nothing about plans for a 2012 rally. The Post's Courtland Milloy attended the 2006 rally. It was, he said, "his first." He was not amused.

Were it not for the threats this paper has received since its first year of publication one might very well have dismissed the note as a prank.

One should not.

Although the modern Klan is but a shadow of its former self, it has been replaced by a growing number of all too-adept practitioners of the craft.

Better educated, better trained, and more articulate than their sheet-wearing, cross burning cousins, these 21st century advocates of wholesale discrimination also have at their disposal all the tools of modern technology, social media not least among them.

The Southern Poverty Law Center currently lists more than a thousand hate groups active in the United States.

Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and DC accounted for 90. Pennsylvania for another 34.

Defined as organizations with "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics," Hate group activities, according to the SPLC, "can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing."

The number of such groups in the US has been steadily rising for more than a decade. The SPLC's conservative estimates indicate at least a 70% increase not counting web sites and publications that appear to be the work of only one person.

The recession and the election of Barack Obama have coincided with yet another increase, this time disproportionately anti-Muslim and anti-gay.

It is perhaps no surprise that the sesquicentennial of the Civil War has also brought a significant number of neo-Confederates back out into the open, all too often under the cover of well-meaning and legitimate organizations.

Loudoun and Fauquier, sadly, are not immune.

An overtly anti-gay Supervisor occupies one of the seats on the Loudoun County Board. A bigger, better, brighter brand of neo-confederates have emerged (or some would say, re-emerged) in Fauquier.

Those of us who are democrats always find ourselves in a quandary when it comes to such individuals and organizations. We are honor bound to protect their right to free speech and assembly, but equally honor bound to expose them for what they are.

We will do our best to walk that fine line.