Group Backs Anti-Racist Slogan Task Force Wants Rights Message Displayed For Aryan Nations March

Idaho is getting a new image.

No longer will the world view the state as a racist haven and Kootenai County as the Aryan Nations’ home. Instead the world will know Idaho as the human rights state.

At least that’s the wish of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

On Thursday, the group unveiled a new slogan it hopes will take hold throughout the state: “Idaho, the Human Rights State.”

This slogan will make its debut Oct. 28, the day racist leader Richard Butler and his white separatist Aryan Nations plan to march down Sherman Avenue in their third parade in three years.

“Idaho’s reputation has been damaged,” task force President Doug Cresswell said. “ This is a great way to launch a new and positive reputation.”

The task force, which includes city leaders from Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, Post Falls and Rathdrum, and the Coeur d’Alene Area Chamber of Commerce, is asking all county businesses to display the slogan on their reader boards to counter the Aryan Nations parade.

Idaho’s striving for a new image comes in the wake of last month’s $6.3 million jury ruling against Butler and the Aryan Nations that will bankrupt the organization and force the 82-year-old leader to leave his longtime home in Hayden. Norm Gissel, a task force member and Coeur d’Alene lawyer who helped engineer the suit against Butler, said the judgment is proof Idaho tolerates no hate and is ready to shed its racist image.

“We are far further along than other states with respect to human rights,” Gissel said.

Gissel called the slogan “uniquely appropriate.”

And the message is going statewide.

Task force members want state lawmakers to officially adopt the slogan and use it on everything from highway signs to Idaho’s commemorative quarter.

Ken Harward, Association of Idaho Cities executive director, wants businesses in all of Idaho’s 201 incorporated towns to display the “Idaho, the Human Rights State” slogan Oct. 28.

“It’s really a statewide issue,” Harward said. “All of us in the state of Idaho feel a moral repugnance in the hate assimilated out of that compound. Idahoans around the state are extremely pleased with the jury’s decision.”

Task force member Marshall Mend wants the slogan on Idaho license plates.

But, “I’m not suggesting we get rid of the potatoes,” Mend said jokingly.

County leaders also urged residents to ignore Butler’s parade and make Coeur d’Alene a ghost town, a quiet means of protest.

“If nobody shows up, it becomes a non-event,” said Tony Stewart, task force secretary.

Butler said Thursday the parade will go on despite the task force’s attempt to quell its attendance.

“I know there will be at least one,” Butler said, acknowledging he may be the lone marcher.

Butler’s application for a parade permit stated that anywhere from 100 to 500 people may march. The parade starts at 11 a.m. at the intersection of Seventh Street and Sherman Avenue, ending at Independence Point.

Last year, scores of protesters crowded Sherman Avenue to block the Aryan parade.

Butler called the task force a communist organization.

Idaho Independent Bank supports the task force and is happy to display the “Idaho, the Human Rights State” message on its Northwest Boulevard reader board, operation officer Julie Leist said.

“All of us are in support of what they are doing and like to support the community in any way we can,” she said.

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Judy said it’s time to throw a farewell party for Butler, and the human rights slogan reiterates what Idahoans already knew about themselves.

“We’re obligated to teach our young people to tolerate,” Judy said, while his 2-year-old son Spencer scribbled on a piece of paper. “You lead by example.”

Erica Curless can be reached at (208) 765-7136 or by e-mail at ericac@spokesman.com.