Recently there has been an attack on our community by a group that calls themselves “Identity Evropa.” They have been posting flyers on college campuses and recruiting students who may be naive to their bigotry. Please don’t let their new branding campaign fool you. Identity Evropa is a hate group, no different than the white supremacists, the Aryan Nation and Nazis. Identity Evropa is the group that organized the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville where Heather Heyer was killed.

Hate groups do not share the values of the Inland Northwest. We care about our community and want everyone to be safe and included regardless of their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, etc. We must be vigilant in protecting our community from Identity Evropa’s toxic hatefulness. How do we protect our neighbors? By talking to our friends and families. Don’t let people you love become indoctrinated into bigotry. Warn the organizations you’re involved in to be on the lookout for this hate group.

Finally, this past Memorial Day we honored those who gave their lives to protect freedom, peace and democracy. Groups like Identity Evropa do not value democracy or the freedom for which our soldiers died.

Joy Moore

Liberty Lake