Compost Pile One Solution To Racist Mail Concerned Citizens Work On ‘Emergency Hate Response Kits’
The next time a racist mailer appears in the mailbox, make hate compost.
That’s one winning suggestion in the Concerned Citizens of Sandpoint contest that called for creative alternative uses for unwanted white supremacist mailings.
To make hate compost, mix manure liberally with the white supremacist literature. Cover the garden and watch something positive grow, the entry suggests.
The first place winner made a candleholder out of a videotaped interview with Aryan Nation’s leader Richard Butler. The model submitted to Concerned Citizens was wrapped in paper, on which was written “Let There Be Light” in English, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, Greek and Hebrew.
On the underside, it said, “We leave the actual magnetic tape intact out of respect for Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who raised the question of how to recognize good without being able to gaze on evil.”
The first place prize was two ski passes to Schweitzer Mountain Resort and a gift certificate to St. Bernards Restaurant.
Gretchen Albrecht-Hellar, a member of Concerned Citizens and chairwoman of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force, would not divulge the names of the 10 winners.
“We promised them we wouldn’t use their names for the simple reason that some people are intimidated when it comes to addressing these groups,” she said. “It’s awful to have to do that.”
She pointed to the recent cross-burning incident in Moscow, Idaho.
Lori Graves awoke Dec. 1 to find her porch torched and a cross burning in her yard. She suspects that she was targeted because she protested the Aryan Nations parade last summer and received much publicity as a result of her arrest during the parade.
Albrecht-Hellar said the list of 10 suggestions will be included in “emergency hate response kits” that will be available at area businesses soon. The kits are education tools and offer ways for people to react to the white supremacist mailings.
The Sandpoint area has been blanketed with mailings in the past few months. Most recently, thousands of racist newspapers from Georgia were mailed general delivery to Sandpoint-area residents.
Prior to that came shiny 6-foot posters and the Butler tape. Those mailings were financed by two wealthy Sandpoint men, Carl Story and Vince Bertollini, who call their ministry the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger.
The third-place winner suggested putting the hate literature in a trunk with an eight-track tape player, a pet rock and a packet of Pop Rocks.
“Open the trunk in 30 years and explain to the next generation why each of the items seemed like a good idea to some people at the time and then explain why they are all extinct.”