Unfortunately, Hate Soils Beauty

Sun., April 19, 1998

By D.F. Oliveria daveo@spokesman.com (509) 319-0354

A year ago, Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler diverted attention from a significant human rights event in Coeur d’Alene by getting arrested for trespassing.

This year, however, nothing could have stolen the spotlight from Idaho Gov. Phil Batt as he told a large Coeur d’Alene audience it’s time for the supremacists to move on. Literally.

To three standing ovations, Batt said:

“This city of Coeur d’Alene has unequalled natural beauty. When an eyesore occurs, there are plenty of volunteers to clean it up. We have one eyesore which is resistant to improvement. That is the presence of irrational hatred and bigotry in our midst. We invite and we challenge the practitioners of this intolerance to come forward and explain their behavior.”

Amen.

For decades, Butler and other transplanted malcontents have soiled North Idaho’s reputation with their goofy quest for a white homeland. The nation’s prisons are littered with thugs who were incited by annual Aryan Nations congresses and later committed violent crimes. Butler and his gang have caused much harm to North Idaho and given nothing back. They do owe residents an explanation for their despicable conduct.

For starters, the neo-Nazis can explain why they preach that the Holocaust never happened. Former Coeur d’Alene Mayor Ray Stone and Lake City retiree Bill McFadden would be interested in their arguments. Stone and McFadden helped liberate German concentration camps. They saw and smelled “the bodies stacked like cord wood.”

Then, area bigots should explain why they celebrate the birthday of Adolf Hitler, the monster whose white supremacism triggered World War II, which killed an estimated 55 million people. Some of Idaho’s best and brightest died to stop Hitler’s evil, including 15 young men from Gov. Batt’s native Wilder.

Finally, “Pastor” Butler should explain how his gospel of hate fulfills the great command uttered by Jesus Christ: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27).” Christ then went on to define “neighbor” very liberally.

Area racists loathe neighbors from the world’s other races and creeds as well as their North Idaho neighbors. Protected by constitutional rights to speak and assemble, the Aryan Nations plans to embarrass its Coeur d’Alene neighbors this summer by marching down Sherman Avenue.

Gov. Batt spoke for North Idahoans when he said: “The idea of a march celebrating evil is repugnant - and it is not what Idaho stands for.”

Butler has been among us for more than two decades, but he’s never been of us. It would be wonderful if he found some other place to defile.

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