Preaching For The Survival Of Tolerance Unlikely Mix Of Ministers, Militia Members Meets At Survivalist Expo

The publisher of an anti-Semitic tabloid tried convincing Spokane’s NAACP president he wasn’t racist.

Militia of Montana co-founder John Trochmann preached tolerance to Spokane preachers.

And a quartet of Yakima County militiamen earned knowing nods when they bemoaned a lack of press coverage for their charitable acts.

A Saturday survivalist expo drew an unlikely mix of white separatists, good-natured anti-government activists and protesting civil rights leaders. Tense discussions outside between vendors and protesters - however peaceful - underscored the event’s surreal, racially charged atmosphere.

Several hundred people attended the first day of a weekend “Self-Sufficiency & Preparedness Expo” at the Spokane Convention Center.

Visitors paid a $7 entry fee to visit booths lined with T-shirts promoting gun rights, littered with camouflage clothing or stacked with conspiracy books.

Outside the convention center, about 30 area ministers and members of Spokane’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held hands in a circle, prayed and sang about love and hope in a courtyard.

They were protesting attendance at the expo by notorious white separatist crusaders like Christian Identity pastor Pete Peters.

Peters has been dubbed “one of the most popular speakers in the hate movement” by the Anti-Defamation League.

“We’ve come here not to point fingers but to show people we should be one,” said the Rev. Percy “Happy” Watkins. “We love this city, but this community has made it comfortable for these people.”

The expo is being held in a leased city-owned building.

After the courtyard prayer, vendors and protesters mingled in quiet circles - some debating, some chatting.

Vendor Paul Hall walked into a huddle of civil rights leaders and said the media had wrongly portrayed some expo participants as bigots.

Watkins, who also serves as president of Spokane’s NAACP chapter, politely quizzed him.

“Do you hate blacks?” Watkins asked.

“We don’t hate blacks.” Hall said.

“Do you hate Jews?”

“We don’t hate Jews.”

Hall publishes the anti-Semitic magazine The Jubilee and recently bought property in Sandpoint with friend Louis Beam, a former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

A few feet from Hall, Trochmann told other protesters that “as Christians, we’re not supposed to judge each other.”

And behind him, gray-uniformed militiamen from Yakima downplayed the racist, violent image of militias.

They said they attended to meet friends and didn’t carry guns. They even built a Habitat for Humanity house for a Guatemalan couple, said militiaman Steve Winman.

“You didn’t see that in the papers,” he complained.

The militiamen urged protesters to visit the expo for free, but all declined.

Inside, most visitors were oblivious to the protest, or to backgrounds of the expo’s speakers.

They simply came to buy camping gear or take turns experimenting with pepper spray. Some listened to lectures on holistic healing while others took notes on how to build an earthen house.

Television cameras - including some from national networks - roamed freely, stopping to interview vendors about their political beliefs.

Chuck Lee, a Portland truck driver who was selling $79 handgun laser scopes, said he considered not coming after he heard “it was going to be filled with racists.”

“I was expecting a lot more radical people,” Lee said. “But I met them and they’re all friendly.”

The convention resembled a carnival for Armageddon buffs, where even the language was a cross between that of a carnival hawker and a soldier.

A man peddling vitamins urged people to “step right up” while he prepared to “lock and load” his fruit juice blender.

Tacoma military surplus dealer Brad Logue - dressed head-to-toe in fatigues, his face painted green and black - gave away $1 green emergency lights.

“You’ve got all kinds in here,” he said with a lopsided grin.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo