Blake Hall
See a hate group? Blow your horn.
That’s what South Carolina Matt Buck did earlier this month when the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) started marching near the capital building in the city of Columbia.
Armed with nothing but a sousaphone and the will to make the klansmen look silly, Buck tooted his way down the sidewalk, blaring notes and familiar songs as the marchers rambled down the street filled with rage and hate and butter and sugar (probably).
“I didn’t really know how to show my opposition, so that was my way of doing it,” Mr Buck told the Charleston City Paper.
“My goal was to embarrass them, and I think I did a little bit.”
Among the hit numbers he thrilled the crowd with were “Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner and the song Stewie plays on Family Guy when he plays his tuba.
Surprisingly, no one bothered or confronted Buck about his playing.
By the way, did you know the sousaphone was invented for the United States Marine Band? It was, in 1893, at the request of John Philip Sousa, by James Welsh Pepper. According to Wikipedia, Sousa was dissatisfied with the hélicons (a similar brass instrument) and wanted a tuba that was more or less designed for marching (which the concert tuba at the time wasn’t).