House backs human rights
BOISE – A resolution declaring Idaho legislators’ support for human rights passed the House overwhelmingly on Monday, but nine members voted against it – including three from North Idaho.
Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, said North Idaho doesn’t need any reminders that it once was home to the Aryan Nations hate group.
“I just think there’s a group of people … that like to keep sore wounds opened up,” Nonini said after the vote. “Those people (the Aryan Nations) have gone away – we don’t talk about it in North Idaho.”
Reps. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, and Phil Hart, R-Athol, also voted against the measure, HCR 8.
“I thought it was a crummy bill – we already got all that stuff in there,” Harwood said. “It was just a feel-good, fuzzy thing.”
Hart said, “I don’t think in general we have a problem here. I think it’s just a few isolated groups. … I think if we just ignored it, it would go away, in my opinion, in time.”
Norm Gissel, a longtime board member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which stood up to the Aryan Nations for decades, disagreed. “Once we were asked that very same thing – isn’t the task force being too loud and too aggressive, and wouldn’t it be better for all of us if we were silent and less expressive in our opposition to the Nazis?” he said. “I can’t find a single example in the history of racism where it benefited anybody to be quiet about it. … You have to have public discourse about it.”
He added, “The advocates for silence I think are good people, but I just think tactically and strategically they’re wrong.”
The resolution’s sponsor, Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, said, “I just thought it was a good time to stand up and say, ‘Let’s pass a resolution backed by the Legislature to commit to the rest of the state and the world that we adhere to the Idaho Constitution and what both of our party platforms outline as protection of human rights.’ It’s almost like renewal of wedding vows. I think we have to do the same thing in terms of human rights.”
The measure states that the “Legislature of the state of Idaho is committed to principles of human rights and recognizes the unique value of the human character in its great diversity and wealth of variety.”
It notes that Idaho created its Human Rights Commission to enforce legal rights to be free from discrimination and that the “citizens of Idaho have endured an unwarranted, unfavorable barrage of publicity related to certain opinions held by a small minority of persons who claim Idaho as their home, but whose opinions we strongly denounce.”
Rep. Lenore Barrett, R-Challis, objected to that part, saying that while she guessed that probably referred to the Aryan Nations, people are entitled to have whatever opinions they want.
Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said that section was too vague. “Sometimes when things are stated in a vague fashion, we risk saying nothing or offending everyone,” she said, although she then voted for the resolution.
Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, objected to the reference to the Human Rights Commission enforcing laws against age discrimination. “Employers should be able to have that free hand to decide if they want somebody older or somebody younger,” Nielsen declared.
Two House members who are attorneys quickly objected, noting that age discrimination in employment is prohibited by both state and federal law. Those laws were enacted “a long time ago, I can tell you that,” said Rep. Les Bock, D-Boise.