Guest opinion: Renew fight against hate
In December 1993, under the cover of darkness, an unidentified individual pitched a cinderblock through the bedroom window of a 5-year-old Jewish boy in Billings. This cowardly act was the most disturbing in an escalating pattern of hate crimes perpetrated by Skinhead and Ku Klux Klan splinter groups attempting to establish themselves in the southeast Montana community.
Having grown up in Montana, I am proud to say the predominantly white Billings citizenry stood with the Jewish community and all others targeted by the splinter groups and loudly declared, “Not in our community!” They actively communicated to these troublesome splinter groups the message that their abhorrent beliefs and intimidation campaigns were not welcome and would not be tolerated in any form or fashion.
Here in the Inland Northwest we too experienced our problems with organized hate, tolerating Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations for years and failing to fully recognize them for the scourge they were as they took root in this community. In so doing, we allowed organized hate to become a nationally recognized detriment to the region and, more importantly, to significantly diminish the quality of life for all who call the Inland Northwest home.
Fortunately, in 1998, Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and Idaho attorney Ken Howard joined forces to successfully sue Butler and the Aryan Nations in civil court. Their collective action effectively bankrupted the organization and enabled North Idaho and the Spokane area to largely eradicate organized hate from our midst. As a result, the Inland Northwest has become a much more welcoming, comfortable and prosperous place for a variety of people to enjoy and call home. I would also like to think it has made us much wiser and better equipped to react when signs of organized hate’s resurgence begin to emerge.
In recent months, organized hate has re-emerged in the form of racist fliers dropped covertly in neighborhood yards, racist vandalism and intimidation, a noose left on the front porch of a local human rights activist and Paul Mullet’s recent declaration that the Aryan Nations organization is coming back to our community under his leadership. Given our history with such activity and the Aryan Nations in particular, we are uniquely qualified to understand what this activity escalation means.
What’s more, we should also recognize that what organized hate groups envision for our community is a vision that is not broadly shared.
I, for one, want to live in a community free of organized hate, where my children can grow into compassionate, productive individuals with a healthy respect for others – perhaps, most especially, those with whom they share few commonalities. I also want to live in a community that values difference and the significant benefits reaped from the hard work of successfully bridging the gaps that often separate us.
In August 2009, law enforcement officials, city council members and mayors from North Idaho and the Spokane area joined the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations in recognizing the real and significant threat organized hate represents to our community. Together, they stood up and loudly proclaimed, “Not in our community!”
As a transplant in this community who intends to make a home here, I have a vested interest in its being a healthy environment in which to raise my family. Therefore, like the wise and noble citizens of Billings, I stand with our community’s civic leaders and proclaim the same: “Not in our community!”
Perhaps, if enough of us within this community do the same, we will someday look back at 2010 as the year our community said no to organized hate’s “last stand” in our region, ensuring that it remains a relic of the past.