How Can Brotherhood Be Enhanced On A Sustained Basis?

Tue., July 21, 1998

Doug Floyd Interactive Editor

It’s been suggested, in all seriousness, that human rights activists in the Inland Northwest owe white supremacist Richard Butler a debt of thanks.

Not because his Aryan Nations march over the weekend in Coeur d’Alene generated some $28,000 in donations to various rights organizations, but because the racist spectacle inspired so much discussion about and attention to issues of racism and cultural diversity.

Discussion that hadn’t been happening, at least with such intensity, before parade plans were announced.

One positive outcome of the Aryan march is the Hands Across the Border rally held Saturday morning on the Gonzaga University campus. Hundreds of people, many of whom had come to Spokane in a caravan from Coeur d’Alene, were on hand to declare - through speeches, entertainment and fellowship - their disagreement with Butler’s gospel of hate.

Should it take a gathering of bigots to inspire a rights celebration? Some of Sunday’s speakers said no.

“Don’t wait for the next Aryan Nations parade, the next rally, to do something,” said Bill Wassmuth, leader of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment.

Eileen Thomas, head of the Spokane NAACP chapter, also called for more efforts to promote diversity every day.

Now that the parade is over, what should be the region’s next move, or moves, to show our commitment to human rights?

A lesson in economic disparity

Out of 29 community college districts in Washington, Spokane’s ranks 19th in terms of how much its part-time instructors are paid.

(Full-time instructors matched the state average.)

This is an issue not only for the faculty union and the college but for business leaders, too. Economic-development programs count heavily on the community colleges to train workers in an area where salaries are low compared with the rest of the state. If the best teachers are lured elsewhere by higher pay, the quality of training could suffer.

But state Rep. Jeff Gombosky, D-Spokane, said the Legislature, which appropriates the money colleges pay their instructors, is reluctant to raise pay for one community college district and not others.

That makes one wonder how the disparity came to be in the first place. Is the Spokane district getting a raw deal or is the low salary for part-timers here just a reflection of a weak union and a weak economic base?

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