My grandfather was the sheriff of a rural Tennessee county in the early part of the twentieth century. During his time in office, a group called the “night riders” terrified local citizens with whom they disagreed, including minorities, attacking and beating them up at night.

They were probably associated with a strand of lawlessness active at the time in the western part of Tennessee. The new century brought changes some didn’t agree with.

I grew up on stories of my grandfather’s attempts to bring to justice those locals responsible for the attacks. My father remembered a time as a young child, waking up and hearing the night riders coming through town, shooting as they went. He remembered his father standing with a pistol, lighted by the lamp just before his father extinguished it.

At least some of the night riders were apprehended and jailed, with help from the Tennessee National Guard, whom my grandfather called in. Some of the local citizens resented his efforts to bring justice and order.

Today’s threats from vigilante groups remind me of those stories my father told. Such groups appear when some feel threatened by changing times. Some resent the calling out of old prejudices, people already uneasy with a world they didn’t create.

Measures instituted to prevent the disease Covid-19 are seen as some kind of attempt against personal liberty, rather than simply ways to save us from suffering and death. Rumors spread, this time with the speed of the internet.

Those of us interested in a safer and saner society can remain patient, even as we act in smaller ways to be kind and compassionate.