Money Poses Problem For Human Rights Group

The money two Sandpoint men are spending to promote Christian Identity is a tough, new obstacle for human rights activists operating on a shoestring budget.

“Their mailings and publications are certainly allowing them to hit more people with their message,” said Gretchen Albrecht-Hellar of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force.

The task force is fighting back with $1 lifetime memberships, T-shirt sales and a contest that plays off the literature and videos Carl E. Story and R. Vincent Bertollini have mailed out.

The contest asks, “What would you do with this junk mail?”

“This contest doesn’t make light of the recent escalation of white supremacist activity in Bonner County,” a newspaper advertisement says.

Instead, it says, the contest will “raise awareness and provide our community with a positive and non-malicious way to respond to those who preach intolerance.”

Bertollini fired back last week with a letter to contest organizers.

He said he hopes his “Adamic Race” posters describing how white people are the true Israelites are inlaid into Sandpoint’s sidewalks and posted in every jail.

“We are disappointed that we are broad-brushed with other groups as a hate group or supremacist group,” Bertollini wrote.

“Our message or work has never made this claim, and we stand four-square against these allegations.”