Weighing in

North Idaho and Eastern Washington communities have seen recent surges in racist activity, including fliers advertising the Aryan Nations tossed in front yards. City leaders and law enforcement gathered Friday to say the best response is a unified community dedicated to rejecting discrimination and hate.

To see the comments in full, check out the blog postings at spokesman.com/tags /aryan-nations, which includes links to related stories, photos and more comments.

OrangeTV: The officials cannot be silent. Silence would basically condone the actions of these hateful troublemakers. Seems like right now they’re just testing the waters and we need to pull the plug by being as loud as they are or louder at every single turn until they get the hint they’re not welcome here.

Missin: The problem with a reaction like this is that it steps all over a person’s First Amendment rights. Until an actual law is broken nothing should be done. You may not like what is said in the brochures, but it is a person’s right to express themselves. To allow these rights to be taken from anyone, even someone we find offensive, is the beginning of a dictatorship where none of us are safe to say anything about anything.

Sisyphus: I don’t think it’s a laughing matter for either side. Shine a light on them and bring a mirror. Confrontation is the only way to fight racism that festers in dark reaches.

Zelda Krup: How soon we forget. The organized racists around here in the ’80s and ’90s committed acts of violence.They’re trying to recruit followers and their tactics to attract attention tend to escalate beyond leafleting. This needs to be nipped in the bud.

Shoshone Conservative: I’ll admit, how to respond to these recent activities is a tough call. It shouldn’t be ignored – not by a long shot, but I still think the press conference was a bit of an overreaction. Perhaps a “middle-ground” response would have been better.

97Jack: The responses of law enforcement and Mayor Verner are appropriate and responsible. We should have such responses from other institutions as well, such as school officials, churches, civic groups and business groups. This evil must be confronted to keep it from doing further damage to our community.

Westside: So, the press conference setup is the tool to battle the hate groups? NOW … they are going to be bold? What does that mean? Before they didn’t pay any attention to racial mailings? And now they are? Bunch of feel-good warm and fuzzy get together … So the citizens feel better.