To the Editor: "Fire!" in a crowded theater. And that is against the law.

This is simple, and only requires moral will to accomplish: formally, legally, designate as terrorist organizations the KKK and Aryan Nation, and any other organized, identifiable groups that, like the preceding, proclaim as their agenda and purpose to commit violence against the rest of us.

They are no different from fanatic Islamists who proclaim and intend the same agendas.

These racist, xenophobic, armed cadres mean to harm persons outside their belief system. They openly preach genocide and ethnic cleansing. They are a clear and present danger to the rights and securities our Constitution established for our citizenry. These organized hate groups challenge and attack the civil liberties we live by.

They are terrorists. If they are recognized and designated under the law as such, they can be forbidden permits to assemble; they can be subject to surveillance by FBI, Homeland Security, and other of our agencies responsible for protecting the general US population.

It only takes the moral will of our Congress, our courts, and the executive. I do not see moral integrity in the heart of our present head of state, but Congress could act if it would; and if they had moral will, governors and mayors in these United States could add their influence to the task of shutting down these terrorists.

My note to the ACLU: if it is true that you were responsible for causing the authorities in Charlottesville to issue permits for those KKK demonstrations and marches, in the name of "freedom of speech," then you have sadly gone astray. The readiness for violence proclaimed by these armed groups was no less a public danger than screaming

Polly Brody

218-B Heritage Village, Southbury         August 18, 2017