Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations Scrapbook 1986

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.;-'3:>IV1~ 2 !Jl'. .. · . -'. ·. . ., . · . . · . ' : • ~ • .' ,. . . '-HA¥DEN ~KE. Ida. (UPI);_ . , i:acism ~d. .~eligj,ous pr~jlidice. ": · -· 1: ~dr~ds :. of white , supremacis~, .

M~ting at the remote compo~, . many, of them armed ~d from an , ~f ~e Aryan'Nations ~hurch in tli ... a~~ent Qf. Ku .Klux Klan and . : heavily for~sted hills, of norther, -;' similar U.S. ..arid ·canadian · grQups, · 'Idaho, the· white supremacisj ! met I saiur~ ·, to deno~nce nQn-. ·'. called for establishrilent of '·· .: w'f./i'tes; Jew~ and the .federal gov;- . · whites-only 11141tion in . the· Pacifj1 etttlttent.! · ·.. .: · ·.. · , · 1 ·,· • Northwest..and the destruction ·.o iMeanwhile, Idaho Gov. John .V. ~-. n~nwhites ~<:\.nop-Qhristians:. '_;'. , . ~w.and -~pout 't,200 othersJath- ·. ' · "Our·!.goa(is · the destruction· ~ etedr..- 15 nules away for a . Good them" Pastor Thomas Robb of tht N.'ei8_h?<)r$ 'l)ay.".Ne~ly _200 com- ;·... -Churcll of Jesus Christ;: ·· muruties ~en~ i:es?lutions m ~upport ;,.-: Ark.. tolg about 300 listeners o~_.1that st ·ss10n m Coeur d Alene, . "There .is .no middle .ground,· w~~l anct 1:inernors of Montana, Wash- . take-nosurviVQrs."· · " .. •.-~· · : ington and-,Or~gon sent ~~teme11~: : · · . , .· .. ; i asking citizens .to reject racism~· ' ;,· : i . •· • · White suprema.~1Sts s41yed awa) ~ i· , · , · ; , · ' • ·, · fr.om t~e. . counterdemonstratioii r ,I ~ 11,~~D,llC IDtO}er~~Ce .· ~~ pol~~~ .'~e~~~1 ·J:10>~ ~~}e .- ~j. · ' 'iJj)e· want :everyone to know ;·. arrests ..· · ·· · :. ·.; ! 1 r : ·, , . !1 , ., .

1 ~, .that the ;AryaIJ Nations and other:/·~t Robb. one·:of ·,15 whiie · iu~ ~ su~h l\ate g:roups do not represent : . premacist ·1eade:rJ3 , planni~g ~Q c nor do·~ey cq>eak for the peopl~ of ·.. speak during the twp-day: confer; 1 : l~~?t ~~~ ~.~ ld.th~~rowd: · · · · .. enc~ that inclu.des a cross-lighting : ·. •!;Alth,ough.· small in ·number. ;,, ;-·and tributes.to Th;e Order, a violent r· ~~,~at.e groups have a blind and .· ~'Aryan · N.a tions' offshoo~ :,! th~\ f ; Ullf.:~ ning intolerance for diver- .. launched an unsuccessful but vio.: I;, si;i .~;: ~~ · said.. ~'They hold a per-:. · . le~t revolution in .1984. Armed ~en . v~rted notion . Qf what America is .. in combat' gear ·pa~n?,lled 1 all abou~ as thf:Y promote se~ele~ acre co.mpoun~ ..r, · ~-. • · ) 1 . ··

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A10 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Monday, September 22, 1986

Priest blames bombing

of honie on neo-Nazis

By GIi Balley P-1 Reporter

A Catholic priest, whose Coeur d'Alene home was bombed a week ago, told a Seattle audience yesterday he believai neo-Nazis have little community support in Idaho but that he still fears for his life.

The Rev. William W8B8muth, who eerves as head of the Kootenai County Taak Foroe

on Human Relations, said he believed the followers of Richard Butler and his Aryan Nation were responsible for the bombing.

W888Dluth, 45, a native of Green Creek, Idaho, organu.ed a human rights rally in July to oppoee a World Aryan Congress at Hayden Lake. W888Dluth's rally drew about 1,000 people and the congress drew about 185.

"I won't call Butler a reverend, nor will I call his organization a church," Waa;muth said before he spoke to about 50 members of the Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation, meeting at the Woodland Park Presbyterian Church.

Butler, who has denied responsibility for the bombing and said he does not condone it,

is the pastor of Hayden Lakebased Church of Jesus Christ Christian Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group.

"I won't say Butler controlled or ordered the bombing," the priest said. "But the people who did it are pretty obvious."

The priest called the supoortera of the Aryan Nation ''outsiders" in Idaho with only a few support.era among the longtime residents of the state. say there isn't ."Idi don't . preJu oe m Idaho," he said.

"But the Aryan Nation goes beyond prejudice. It wants to overthrow the government and the American way of life."

He called for a non-violent reaction to the attacks by such organizations.

Both Idaho gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Cecil Andrus and Republican Dave Leroy, have protested the bombing. Andrus called for a federal grand jury investigation.

Waa1111uth said he hoped for "positive" demonstrations in opposition to the white supremaciats and the violenceprone "Order," which launched a series of attacks in an effort to form a nation for whites in the Pacific Northwest.

Story on Page Cl also

By JOHN SNELL

°' The Oregonian ......

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COEUR d' ALENE, Idaho Father Bill Wassmuth is careful now when someone knocks on bis door late at night.

Since a pipe bomb planted by neoNazi extremists exploded outside his home Sept. 15 - and since three more went off in downtown Coeur d'Alene on Sept 29 - he no longer jogs alone and is more cautious of strangers.

"I could sit down and start to imagine myself all bloody with machine gun bullets ripping through me," the Catholic priest said last week. "But I could imagine the same sort of thing happening to me when I get into my car and drive down the road. I'm not being a hero about it. I just don't choose to be fearful."

According to state and federal prosecutors, Wassmuth was targeted because of bis position as head of the Kootenai County, Idaho, Task Force on Human Relations, a group that bas worked since 1981 to Cham· pion the cause of civil rights in Northern Idaho and to work against groups such as the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations/Church of J esus Christ Christian.

It hasn't been an easy task.

Church fight avoided "We've been very careful not to get the thing into a church fight," Wassmuth said. The Church of Jesus Christ Christian is an offshoot of an Identity church founded in Los Angeles after World War II called the Anglo-Saxon Christian Congregation.

With close ties to the Ku Klux Klan, it holds that Adam was a white man who sired the 12 tribes of Israel referred to in the Bible. It also taught that Jews are the children of Satan - descendants of Cain, who they say was a child born when Eve committed original sin by sleeping with the devil.

Identity followers also believe that whites are inherently superior to blacks and other minority races and that England and the United States are the true Israel referred to in the Bible.

Wassmuth said the task force has steered clear of theological issues raised by the Identity movement and instead has focused on the Aryan Nations' goal of setting up a "whites only" homeland in Idaho, Oregon.

Washington, Montana and Wyoming.

"We've come to take that business seriously, not because there's any serious threat of it actually happening, but because they take it serious-

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wrong image, of being a safe haven for neo-Nazis. We're not.

"I think we need to aggressively recruit conventions to this area with very strong ties to the J ewish community and the black community.

We need to explain to these groups that we have a problem out here.

The Jewish community, the Catholic community and the black community have got to understand that all hell's going to freeze over before the people of this area are going to accept or give in to the neo-Nazis."

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Part of his arsenal in fighting the groups is Idaho's malicious-harassment law. Passed in 1983, it makes it a felony to harass or intimidate a person because of his or her race or religion.

Walker is handling the first prosecution under the law, in which a member of the Aryan Nations church, Larry Phillips, was accused in August of threatening to kill Larry Smith, a black man who was shopping at a K Mart Store in Coeur d'Alene, and ramming into him with a shopping cart.

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Phillips was arraigned Monday in Kootenai County Circuit Court after undergoing a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. His trial is set for Jan.12.

No fear or panic

The Oregonian/ROSS HAMILTON

Father BIii Wassmuth, whose home was bombed last month, says he takes neo-Nazl rhetoric seriously "because they take It seriously." ly," Wassmuth said.

"The number of people who would be attracted to the philosophy of Aryan Nations is extremely limited," he added. "The numbers that might agree with a portion of it could be substantial. The whole package of who they are and what they believe has to be held up to the light constantly."

The task force, while it bas received the most publicity, is only one part of a multipronged attack against Idaho racists, said Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Glenn E. Walker.

"I think it's time we go on the offensive with these groups, start playing winner's rules," he said. "I think we've developed an image, a

"I think the law can have a deterrent effect as long as people are knowledgeable a bout it," Walker said. "I got a good deal of publicity when it was passed, but it's the kind of thing that once it's out of sight, it's out of mind. If we're successful in prosecuting this case, we'll have more notoriety about it."

Robert J. Olson, principal of Bryan Elementary School in Coeur d'Alene, said the bombings fright· ened many of the parents - particularly those with children at Sorenson Elementary School, located a few blocks from where one of the bombs went off - but still did not create an atmosphere of fear or panic in the community.

"This part of the state has more than its share of the lunatic fringe, I suppose," Olson said. "I think we had some real fear on the day of the bombings, but it's pretty much blown over now."

Wassmuth said he agreed that his town wasn't gripped by fear of the Aryan Nations, and although the people who live in Northern Idaho are known for a tolerant "don 'tbother-me-and-1-won't-bother-you" attitude, he believes most people are fed up.

"They're saying that law enforcement has gotten rid of some of the mosquitoes," Wassmuth said. "Now it's time to drain the whole swamp."

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THE PROV I DENCE SU N Dt\ Y JQURNAL

THE NATION

Priest leads Idaho group ~gaillst neo-Nazis STEVE MARANTZ The Soscon Clo~

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho When the Rev. William "Father Dill" Wassmuth was asked to head a citizens' group cont.ending with neo-Nazis who set up a corr;pound just o utside town, the outgoing chairman joked. "You don't 1ave a wife and a kid and your church is made o r brick."

The remark turned prophetic on Sept. 15, when Wassmuth's wood· frame house was pipe-bombed. Four neo-Nazis have been charged with the crime. A back door was hlown off, SP.Vera! windows were shat· tered and shrapnel sprayed the neighborhood. Wassmuth, .t5, a Catholic priest, w ho was not hurt. said last week, "The joke Isn't very funny now."

More than ever, the dt.zens' group headed by Wassmuth -- the Kootenai County Task Force 011 Human Relations - Is aware of its perilous mission in this northern Idaho

tourist and timber town of 20,000.

Many members say they are on a neo-Nazi "hit list" uncovered by the FBI. The list was discovered during the arrest or three men and a woman for the bombing of Wassmuth's house, and for the subsequent bombings Sept. 29 of three government buildings.

"These people are absolutely wacko," said Marvin Mend, a real estate broker and task force member. "I was going to carry a gun. But then a fri end pointed out that a gun won't help because these people will sneak up and shoot you in the back."

Wassmuth's Insistence that the task force be non-violent is another reason not to carry a gun, Mend added.

The four persons charged in the bombings are tied to the white SU· premacist Jesus · Christ Christian Church, commonly known as Aryan Nations, with headquarters In a forest compound 12 miles north of

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Mr. Cul Dworman P o. Box l23 11.'ddo,d, Rhodt l1lnl 02852

Coeur d'Alene. Thi! 30 to 35 "Ary· balanced picture of northern Idaho: But its non-violent ethic is being ans.'' as they are known localy, ad· vocate the creatio:t or a separate tested. Most residents .anticipate white Christian nation out of five further attacks by the Aryans, even· · northwestern states and teach that though the Aryans rarely are seen in town.

Jews are the offspring of Satan. ''They recruit thugs," said Ray In the early 1980s the Aryans spawned a violer.t revolutionary Givens. husband of state Rep. sect known as The Order - whose Jeanne Givens. members now are either imprisoned Task force members, and most or dead - which engaged in coun- residents, wish fervently for the terfeiting, armed rc•bbery and mur- Aryans to leave. Nobody knows' der. The four persons charged in the why the Aryans, led by the Rev. recent bombings arc alleged to have William Butler, came 10 years ago. formed a second Order.

It is supposed that Butler, who The task force, formed in 1981 was unavailable for comment, and after children of a racially mixed his following were attracted by the marriage were harassed by a white small number of minority group supremacist. is a non-violent coun- membe.r s (less than l percent of the tervailing force to the Aryans. Its county's 65,000 residents) and by 175 members - pwfessionals, mer- the natural beauty. Lake Coeur d'A· chants. teachers, law enforcement Jene, with I 00 miles of pine-guarded officials, laborers and housewives shoreline, is a popular outdoor rec- provide moral and legal support reation area. "They feel they have a to the county's minority population, right to the best land in the country, conduct informational and educa- which is right here." said Wasstional programs and try to present a muth.

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Lewiston Tribune/Sunday. December 21 . 1986

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It's th e anti-racism that w ill be remembered oeur d'A lene ha , become known not a s tht> hllme nf the neo-Nazis, as c;om e had 11:a n .:d. but a s t he comm unity that rose up anJ reJectcd a hand ful of raci:, : l.'.r:t1.1es who '-ettled on the edge of that city

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On J a n. 1-1 . thr e~ of Coeur d ' Alene ' s leade rs ha ve been 1n v1ted to appear at ;'l;ew York City Hal l and receive the Raoul Wallenberg Civic Awa rd for opposition to rae isrn a nd violence .

Invited to the c e 1¡e m ony a re Mayor R ay Stone , Koo tenai Count y Und e r shc r iff Larry Broadbent and t he R ev . B ill Was mu t h .

Broadb ent , \\"ith the b iessing of th e le<Jde r s and ci ti zen s o f that city. has made himself an expe r t on v io lent radical s. And Wasmuth , a pl'iest. has been b orh a lead e r in the comm unity ' s rejection of rac ist extrem ists and a targ e t of racist anger . His home was damaged by a bom b .

That bombing and Wasmuth became

the focus of th e commun it y¡s dec en cy . As the du st cleared. min iste r !; of even- fa it h rallied to hi s side. s itt in g in a c1rdt: wit h h im before the c a m e ra s . ::.Wntl1n g up to te rro ri sm P (;np le thro ughc,ut t he cr,m mu nity and the sta te . inc luding Id aho' s t::lccte d leader s . a lso made their stand ,v1th \.Vasmuth a nd w ith the dt:<.:e nt side of Coeu r d 'Alene .

It is apparent now t hat the d ecent side is both sides of tha t community a nd that the noisy r acists aren't a side a -t a ll. The y

are no mor e than a boil on the community ¡ s backs ide. Wha t stands out ab,,ut Cot:ur d"Alenc in New York and els ewh ere 1s not the c razies : it 1s the Broa d bents and t he Wa smut hs . It is a community that s wept aside and triumphed over racism and vio lence.

T hat is what has com e to the fo r e and will be on displav for national telev ision cameras at that ceremony in New York. It 1s a n honor to li ve in the same state with peop le li ke that . - B.H .

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THE CHRISTIAN SC IENCE MONITOR

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White su,nt11111Clata lri1US1 ldah.0.1~ 1!,ces1m to extrer.Jlis!!J.f --

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A town stands Up to organized racism .

In 1978 a whitesupremacist group calling itself the Aryan .

Nations set up camp on land near the sleepy little northern Idaho town of Coeur d'Alene.

Last Sept. 29 a group linked to the Aryan Nations made an abortive attempt to rob two local banks for · money to finance racist violence. Suddenly alert to the threat, the community rallied behind a task force seeking to counter the activities of its unsavory neighbors.

By Cheryl Sulllvan Stat! writ8f of The Christian Science Monitor

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NEALM~HEL - STAFF

unwelcome neighbor: entrance to Aryan Nation, compound near Coeur d'Alene

for our efforts," he says. "There's a Jot of support now, compared with four or five years ago."

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho The undersherilf and other experts across the US say The first bomb went off at 9:10 a.m., followed by two other community activism ls the key to countering organi7.ed racexplosions within the next half-hour, remembers Larry ism. It ls important that all segments of a community - not"'°"' Broadbent, unde.rsherUr o f Kootenai County. It was Sept. 29, ;. just the minority groups who are under attack - publicly ' : 1986, the day this idyllic resort town in northern Idaho repudiate racial intolerance, they say. ~ awoke to confront racist violence.

The Kootenai County Tusk Fbrce on Human Relations has :':"We can never again go back to sleep and let time and the been lauded as a model for communities elsewhere in the ....._ world just pass us by," says Mr. Broadbent, who has become, · country that are feeling the influence of racial hatred. The ...,..._ of necessity, an expert on the whit.e-supremaclst movement . task force's work, in fact, will be recognized by a human .;:, · in the United States. "Now there will always be some kind of rights group, the Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United ~ vigilance."

States, at an awards ceremony Wednesday in New York. · Federal and state prosecutors say the three men arrested The broad base of the task force - it includes represents- V\ for the bombings have ties to the Aryan Nations, an extrem- tives from city government, local law-enforcement agencies, ....., l ist, white-supremacist group that set up camp on the out- schools, business, churches, and minority groups - is what ~ skirts of town in 1978. Although no one was Lr\jured by the makes it innovative, says Bob Hughes of the US Justice :: explosions, subsequent revelations about the suspects' inten- Department's Community Relations Service in Seattle. "" tions were even more alarming.

"There are no other parts of the country where task forces {'0 According to pretrall evidence presented by the Federal have developed this same combination of people," he says.

Bureau of Investigation, the bombs were planted to distract The scope of task-force activity has been equally broad - .._ police while the perpetrators robbed supporting victims of racial harass- S two local banks and the nearby Na'· · ment, denouncing racial intolerance, c. tional Guard Armory. Although the promoting multiculturalism, imtruct- ~ suspects abandoned their plan after ing law-enforcement officers about " the bombs exploded, the scheme air civil rights laws, and lobbying to in- I ' parently was similar to one carried out crease the penalties for racially motitwo years earlier in Spokane, Wash., ' vated crimes. More important, the task •

by The Order, a notorious neo-Nazi > force has become active, rather than gang. defensive, in its response to the Aryan -....

The Order, which had ties to the Nations' message of white supremacy, 1 Aryan Nations, saw most of its memobservers say. It is producing program- , bers imprisoned last year for violaming for public-ac<.'eM TV, is helping to "'~ tions of federal racketeering laws. Deplan a communltywide celebration of 1 spite this setback, new faces have Martin Luther King Day, and is considappeared to carry on its goals of. ering 1lling a civil suit against Aryan overthrowing the US government and Nations members. 'iJ establishing an all-white republic. The The undersheriff believes all the Order's whit.e-supremaclst agenda perhard work has been effective. "Instead sists - as September's bombings made of dealing with the 36 people who are clear. now out there [at the Aryan Nations The blasts,· however, had the unincompound1 we could have been dealtended effect of galvanizing Coeur ing with 9,600," Broadbent says. "If d'Alene as never before. Community there's a nonresponse to their activileaders had formed a task force in ties, they see it as implied consent."

198t to respond to the Aryan Nations' To outside appearances, a conservaactivity, but now public participation tive state like Idaho is an unlikely in it is much higher, Broadbent says. place for people to become roused over "There isn't a day that goes by that an issue that is generally considered a somebody doesn't stop me on the street Rev. Bill Wa11muth, ta1k force leader, liberal cause. "The Idaho tradition is to or call to thank us (task force members) In front of hl1 church In Coeur d'Aleene Please eee ORDER rect page

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THE CHRISTIAN SCI ENCE MON ITOR'

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1987

....... __ . NATIONAL ..,..., .. --

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Bitter.m~e from pulpit

By Chefyl Sulllvan Std wrilM CJI The Oviotion Soe,,oo Mcmor Hayden Lalla, ldallo

Pius X Roman Catholic Churdl, who heads up the task force. ' - Last summer was the turning point, he leave people alone, even if a guy is zany," says. More than 1,000 people turned out says task force member Nonn G.is.,el. "It's for a human rights rally in Coeur d'Alene, an ·ethic we have here."

- timed to coincide with the annual "World · So, when retired engineer Richard But,. Aryan Congres.," for white supremacists ler bought land north of town and moved at Mr. Butler's compound. there in 1974, no one paid much heed. In "That was the first time the commu1978, when the Aryan Nations sign was nity really stood up to the Aryan Nallrst posted on his pro~ tions," says Fr. Wasserty, most everyone lgmuth, whose own home nored. it. In 1980, when Last summer more was bombed Sept. 16, two !l:lfa.,tilcas began to appear weeks before the explo, 'on the sides of building., in • than 1,000 peopl~,·-· ~ns downtown.

- : the community, they were turned out for a . - ·u Fr. Wassmuth says he dismissed as the work or human rights rally-.in . ~signs.that the ~an vandals or kooks. , Nations' influence IS on But the incidents began Coeur d Alene. the wane. The mood of the to escalate, Mr. Gissel community is becoming so says. An Aryan Nations .

Inhospitable that extrernnewsletter called for the establishment of ists here will move away, land in jail, or a white "homeland" in the Paciflc North-- leave the movement, he says. west. The rabbi in nearby Spokane reBut "the task force will be here after ceived threatening letters. they go away," he predicts. "We have a When minorities in town were haras- long way to go to learn to live as a multised, the task force was fonned to assist cultural society. . . . The only value to the victims.

• seeing this blatant bigotry is to cause But it wasn't until The Order trial in • people to reexamine any type of prajudice Seattle in late 1986, when the group's link they may have in their own hearts." to the Aryan Nations became clear, that the community really began to take noNext: ~ the US C.Outitudon protice, says the Rev. Bill Wassmuth of St. teet whl.t.e n p ~

ORDER fftlm precedi'tg page

government of the people. We today have a tyranny, but not a government."

On llfllffllatfye action, "White men are no longer citizens of the United States, from the standpoint of employment."

On l'Mistanc:e to communism. "I was just reading where- Hewlett-Packard is opening a factory In [Communist) China. The Chinese will build computers and then ship them and sell them in the US. What's happening here? They're cloeing American factories, and our men are learning to flip hamburgers. : : . They 're telling you, 'White man, you've had it. You're through.'

We've already lost the

Signs posted at the entrance to the Aryan Natio.n s headquarters read "Welcome Aryan warriors" and "whites only."

People in nearby Coeur d'Alene refer to this 19-acre parcel of land as "the compound." Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler prefers to call it "the church grounds."

Nestled among the pines is Mr. Butler's Church of Jesus Christ Chr istian , whe re he preaches his message of whit e s upremacy each Sunday to a congregation that these days rarely exwar against communism."

• On the "Jewtah conceeds 30. The church is aplntc:J," "Why, it we are adorned with flags of the the richest nation, are we "Aryan" nations of Europe, drawings of medibankrupt? Why are we eval knights, swastikagiving away millions of like emblems, and a huge dollars to other nations? picture of Adolf Hitler. It Because the money ~ is a lltting backdrop for tern is created by the Fedthe man who, more than eral Reserve System and anyone else, has managed the Jews. It's the Jews 'who benefit. The us is to wrap racist Nazi beliefs in a shroud of religion. giving the Soviets loans Butler's critics concede for 1~ percent or 2 perthat t he doctrine he cent interest, yet Amer· p r eaches - known as ican citizens get them for Christian Identity - may 17 percent. Who is this constitute a sincerely held Butler in his 'Church of government run for? It's religious belief. They note, .Jeaus Christ Christian' run for Judaism and com. however, that it is incommunism.."

Oft .... ......._ "'The Aryan Nations 'pat!ble with other Christian rellglons and that the State orfdaho has revoked the destiny is to bring laW"'and ordef, to this earth, and to call people to their nation. chW'ch's tax-exempt status. . l.n the following excerpts from an In· Your nation is your race..... If you destroy the white race, you live in darkness terview, Butler provides an eloquent Indictment of his views. He is more likely to forever." " On the future. ..First you'll see ~ cite the Bible than " Mein Kampf," but his messages of anti-5emitism and racial nomic chaos and collapse. It's here. Then scapegoating are the same ones espoused you'll see massive riots. If you do.n't feed

by Hitler. In his bitter comments about all these people you're importing in here; the swe of America today he manages to you're going to have trouble.

"The handwriting has been on the strike many of society's sore spots_ On llllllllgratlon. "The United States wall, in neon lights, !lashing for soine · was founded for the white race. And any time now."

On wb1te 'Black is government's responsibility is the preservation of its people, by the protection of beautiful' is what gets headlines. That's its borders. When a government abro, wonderful, right? But white pride? Now gar.es that responsibility, it ceases to be a that's 90ll\ething to rai9e eyebrows at."

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A14 The Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle

Spokane, Wash., Sun., Feb. 15, 1987

Trial reveals bumpkins beneath Klan robes

By Fred Grimm Knlght-Rldde.r

MOBILE, Ala. - By the trial's end, the secrets of the secret empire were on the nation's front pages. The lo{al brotherhood became a gaggle o feuding rednecks. Officers with exotic titles like Grand Titan, Exalted Cyclops and Nighthawk so bungled their courtroom defenses that they began to seem more pathetic than sinister.

The Ku Klux Klan mi~t have even looked comical were 1t not for the brutal, unprovoked lynching of a 19-year-old black man that was at the crux of this landmark lawsuit. When the all-white jury returned a $7-millioo verdict Thursday night against six Klan members and the United Klaas of America Inc. - a figure that will likely break the once powerful national Klan faction - it was the first time a corporate entity had been held responsible fo, Klan violence.

Anti-Klan crusader Morris Dees a nd bis staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., had engineered the novel legal a pproach that was as much aimed a t United Klaas and its longtime â&#x20AC;˘ Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton as at any of the actual killers of Michael Donald.

Suing on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, the victim's mother, Dees not only implicated four more Klaosmeo in the murder conspiracy beyond the two already convicted in the 1981 killing, but convinced the jury that they were all agents of Shelton's organization.

Along with winning the judgment, Dees used the courtroom to strip away the Klan's mystique.

"We're opening the Klan to the light of day," said the tall, blond lawyer whose name was found at the top of the Klan hit-list last year i.n North Carolina. He has become the number one enemy by using the courts to harass the Klan's leaders and has won court orders against Klan activities in Texas and North Carolina. A civil suit against the Klan in north Alabama was postp<>ned after evidence Dees gathered rn the case led to criminal charges.

In the Donald lawsuit, Dees managed to eroduce copies of the United Klan s bank. records, the &ecret constitution and an organizational chart with the weird tiUes and secret symbols of everyone in the

militarylike chain of command.

But as Dees revealed to¡ the jury the men who carried the fancy titles in Unit 900 - the Mobile klavem that sponsored the Donald lynching, the Klan began to look more like a group of poorly educated, naive, lower-class white men whose only hope at social standing was in the Ku Klux Klan. "Where else could Teddy Kyzar become accepted?" asked Dees of the former Klansman who became one of bis most effective witnesses.

Kyzar was rotund, slow-witted, with pale skin, reddish hair, glasses and the face of someone who passed his school days as the miserable amusement of other students.

He described bow be was publicly lashed three times in the Klan for various violations, once gettir.g "50 lashes with a strap" on bis back as he was forced to lean across the "sacred altar."

Kyzar also told bow be donned dark clothes and spent hours cowering behind bis sofa, fearful of assassination, after be decided to cooperate with police investigating the murder of Michael Donald. He said that the old Grand Titan, Bennie Jack Hays, head Klansmen in southern Alabama, once warned him that if he talked, "I'd be dead in eight hours, 24 at the most."

Hays, whose son Henry is on death row now for the Donald slaying, looked at the jury and said, sneering, "He must be a liar because he's still alive and be sang like a bird."

At the beginning of the trial, the elder Hays, 70, thin, hunched with age, leaning on bis cane, might have looked like a harmless old man. But Dees brought out that this old man bad just finished a threeyear federal sentence on arson charges. And witnesses revealed that Hays first suggested that a black man be lynched to offset the fact that a predominantly black jury in Mobile had failed to convict a black defendant accused of killing a white policeman.

And after James "Tiger" Knowles and Henry Hays randomly plucked Michael Donald off the streets, murdered him and bung his body from a tree across from Henry's apartment, two witnesses said they beard the old man comment, "Ain't that a pretty sight."

Bennie Jack Hays tried to act as bis own attorney in the trial, but when he rose to cross-examine a

witness, he only strengthened Dee's case. Badgering Kyzar, he managed to bring out that be once led the Mobile klavern on a tire-slasbinJ spree to punish anyone who m1gbt be watching a black Mardi Gras parade. He pressed harder and 9uickly got himself implicated in a firebombing incident.

The old man could only tell the jury that key witnesses in the case were lying. At one point the Grand Titan and bis former Nighthawk, William O'Conner, bad a long exchange over which of the two bad actually suggested lynching a black man.

Kyzar told how be and the klavern's Exalted Cyclops, Frank Cox, who was also Hays' son-in-law, burned a cross on the courthouse

lawn tbe night of tbe lynching, then raced across the Mobile Bay causeway and screecbed into a aervice station to use a pay phone to call Henry Hays and report their mission accomplished. ''But neither one of us bad any money," Kyzar said. " We couldn't call."

The most dramatic moment of the trial came during final arguments. Tiger Knowles, a Klan member since be was 14, now serving a We sentence for a murder be committed when be was 17, tearfully told the jury bow tbe Klan bad ruined bis life and bow much be regretted bis crimes and that be ho~ others might learn from bis mistakes. He turned to Beulah Mae Donald, bis voice cracking with emotion, and said, "I can't bring

;I

V

your son back, Mrs. Donald. God knows that if I could trade places with him, I would."

Klan attorney John Mays then rose and, as if be was unable to adjust bis strategy to the unexpected speech by tbe -defendant, talked of bow dispassionate Knowles bad been in bis testimony.

Evidence in the trial showed no sign of tbe Klansmen's famous unity. Dees produced a letter from Bennie Jack Hays describing bow Shelton burned documents the plaintiffs bad subpoenaed in the lawsuit. Kyzar and O'Conner and Hays and Cox took turns calling one another liars. Former Klansmenturned-informants described a Jong legacy of racial violence fomented

by Shelton and the United Klans.

V

And Shelton's lawyer, Mays, made no real attempt to protect any of the individual Klansmen named in the lawsuit.

After tbe trial, Dees walked over to O'Conner and Red Betancourt, who were both as shaken as any blue-collar worker might be in the face of a $7-million judgment. He took Betancourt's band, put bis arm around O'Conner and explained that be was more interested in the resources of United KJans and Bennie Bays then a couple of lowly, hapless Klan dropouts. He bad erased Teddy Kyzar from the list of the defendants the day before the case went to the jury.

Dees gave them a reassuring smile and slipped into bis rural Alabama drawl. ' 'Don't ya'll worry."

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A10

SUN., SEPT. 27, 1987

Oninion -

NORTH IOAHO SUNDA

Promoting human rights dissipat~s Aryans' influence Almost a year ago Coeur d'Alene was thrust group prompted renewed effort on the part of into the national spotlight. The publicity was the community to combat the negative stories unexpected and unwanted. First, a local that North Idaho is a haven for white priest's residence was bombed. Then, two supremacists. It also focused on a truth - that weeks later, explosions rocked the downtown there is a group, small that it is, that promotes area in three different locations. Linked to the white supremacy in this area.

Aryan Nations, the events drew attention to During the past year there has been an outthe Aryans' doctrine of white supremacy.

Three men were arrested for the bombings, pouring of community support for human and all had previous ties to the Church of Jesus rights, Bill Wassmuth, the priest whose home was bombed, reports. There is also more openChrist Christian.

A year has gone by and the reaction of the ness and discussion of minority rights.

The Human Rights Celebration held earlier community to those bombings and the subsequent publicity of Richard Butler's Aryan this summer in the park helped to focus on the

continuing concern of minority rights. Such an annual celebration could expand in the future, with supporting lecturers and seminars. North Idaho College's political scientist Tony Stewart has voiced his interest and support of this idea. Drawing on the interest and concerns of the Human Rights Task Force and providing a regional or national educational forum for human rights could again draw attention to this area. ¡ The fact that the Aryans are still a viable group causes concern among families who choose to live here despite the Aryans' beliefs.

And, the human rights issue goes deeper than racial and religious prejudices. It concerns families with special children. It concerns persons with handicaps. ¡ Butler, in talking about the bombings, says he was a victim of a smear campaign.

Although he has denied any link to the bombings, his words are these: Someday it probably would be necessary for white supremacists to resort to acts of violence .. .We are carrying on as we have before.

We can't afford to carry on as we have before. The attitudes of Butler and his followers must be dispelled.

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W .a.ITiors of Hate Find .

-- No Homelarid in Idaho

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By TIMOTHY EGAN s,,.dal •o

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HAYDEN LAKE Idaho Dec. 27 The Rev Richard Glmt Bu t1er head or tJie neo-NazJ sect based here in northem Idaho, believes white people in the ~orthwest will rally round him when lie Is trled on Federal sedition charges.

But the communities surrounding the 20-acre headquarters or Mr. Butler's Aryan Nations are doing just lJle oppOSlte.

Jn the last year some or the nation's stiffest la ws against racial and rell· glous harassment have been passecl In . Jd!lho. Followe.r s or Mr. Butler, a self· .orjlalned minister or the Church or j~sus Christ Christian, have been -vigorously prosecuted for church .bo,mblngs and other violent acts. Para. m1litary training Is now a state felony.

Working together, a Roman Catholic 0

and piles or hate litera1ure, Insists that "we will prevail."

But Ms. Givens said a clvi] rights rally last su!11mer drew rive um.es as many participants as Mr. Bullers an· nual Aryan World Congress, held at the same lime. Compared with earlier ones, the Aryan rally or about 200 peopie "was Jus1a wimpy little celebration th~t no one paid any attention t~," she saJd.

Leaders In Prison · After several years or Federal prose- , L .. culion, • most leaders or the neo-Natl movement In the Norlhwesl are In prison, have gone underground or have become Government Informers. All 23 members or the Order, a violent orr. shoot or the Aryan Nations, are In prison for bombings, bank robberies Catholic prie&t in Coeur d'Alene and murde r In a plan to overthrow the "Now we're known for the Government. Robert Jay Mathews, the Nazis, but eventually we 'II be rounder or the Order, died In a shootout with Federal agents in 198~. Two other known as the community that members were convicted last month In faced the Nazis and won." the machine-gun slaying or Alan Berg. a radio 1alk show host In Denver.

Last April a Federal grand Jury In Fort Smith, Ark., indicted Mr. Buller . and 13 others~charges or conspiring to overthrow e Gove.m ment. The priest, an Indian leglsla1or and a Jew- trial there Is s eduled to start Feb.16.

Nationally, the Aryan Nations has no ish businessman have held a series or ',i:allles and workshops and brought na- more than 500 members, according 10 tional civil rights leaders Into the Irwin Sual or the Anti-Defamation sparsely populated lake towns or north· League or B'nai B'rith In New York, em Idaho to speak agalns1 Mr. Butler whlch monitors the actlvrtles or hate and his doctrine or anti-Semitism and groups. "In general, the hate movement has lost about hair Its members In racial separation. the last five years," he said. "The •siand Up and Be Counted' blows struck against them have been •· "This community has been examln· severe. J would say they arc reeling." tng Its conscience," said the legislator, In the Idaho panhandle, long known State Rq>resentatlve Jeanne Givens. ror its powder snow In winter and its "lllere used to be a live-and-let-live at- brook trout in summer, civic leaders titude about these people. But lhe attl· say their area has been tarnished by tude now Is stand up and be counted." the notoriety of the neo-Nazls. Hayden Mr. Butler's talk or a white homeland Lake's ch ief claim lo fame before Mr. In the American West Is heard by Just a Buller moved there was that It was the handful or followers these days. Once a summer home or Bing Crosby. . . week they huddle around a wood StOve swastikas on the side or their arms," In a church that uses the Christian Facing Down the Nazis said Father Wassmuth. "They don't do cross and the Nazi swastika as the 1 " Now we're known for the Nazis, but tha1 anymore. ll's uncomfortable to chief symbols. Outside are an empty eventually we'll be known as the com- come to North Idaho with that view." guard tower and a sign that says, "Wei· munity that raced lhe Nazis and won," Marshall Mend, a Hayden Lake real' :ome Aryan warriors." said the Rev. Bill Wassmuth, e Catholic estate broker, said tha t Koo1enal CounTh. elr leader, a 69-ycar-old man priest whose Coeur d'Alene church was ty, which includes Coeur d'Alene an. d weakened by a heart attack who is sur- bombed last year.

Hayden Lake, had a black and Jewish rounded by barking German shepherds "Th~y used to ride around town with population of less than 1 percent

-·- Residents stand ~:up against neo-Nazis. '

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The Rev. Richard G. Butler

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H ead of o neo-Nazi sect

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Says followers have sent in $10,000 for his legal defense and whites will rally around him when he is tried.

Marshall M end Hayde.n Lol<e real-e,1ate brul<er

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"We now have the toughest malicious harassment laws in the country. Our mistake was not being loud enough in the very beginning."

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among Its 70,000 cluzens but added, "!l's the farthest thing there Is from a racist community."

"We now have the toughest mali· cious harassment laws In the country," Mr. Mend said. "Our mistake was not being loud enough In the very begin· ning."

Mr. Butler, meanwhile, continues to

chum out hate literature and pamphlets from his office here and says supporters have sent In $10,000 to help pay for his trial defense. He calls his enemies, Including Father Wassmuth and Under Sheriff Larry Broadbe.nt or Kootenai County, "Jews" and says, , ' '. They are tryin,g to kll! an Idea, but all

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lhC armies In the world haven't ~ able to crush this Idea yet" Mr. Broadbent, who l.s considered one or the foremost nro-Naz;J experts In the country, says continued vigilance ls needed. "I won't pronounce them dead un1il they're gone," he said. "But they a re dying. no question about that It's Just a gradual death." .-.

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A .pause in the battle against .h ate But Wassmuth says Kootenai County Task Force still has much to do /- /7-?'?

By D.F. Oliveria StaflWTiter

COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations bas arrived at a crossroads without a directional map.

A long string of human rights achievements lines the path it already bas traveled. Still, task force leaders the Rev. Bill Wassmuth and Tony Stewart feel the bulk of their work remains ahead.

"It would be foolish to say the problem (of racial and religious prejudice) has gone away," said Wassmuth during an interview from bis St. Pius X Catholic Church office.

The work of the task force bas bas been touted nationwide - most recently Jan. 10 during NBC-TV's "Sunday Today" show, in which this area was held up as a model in the national fight against racial and religious prejudice.

Task force chairman Wassmuth has been recognized as the state's Man of the Year by The Idaho Statesman newspaper and is under consideration for Syracuse University's first Courage Foundation Award.

The Legislature bas enacted a task force.hacked legislative package that makes human

• Task force profiles - AB

rights laws in Idaho among the toughest in the country. · Most importantly, the white supremacist movement, the focal point of task force activity to date, is in full retreat locally.

But Wassmuth's point about work remaining to be done was underscored Friday by Ida Leggett, a black Coeur d'Alene attorney.

In an address to Kootenai County Democratic Club members, she said her only son had been driven out of Coeur d'Alene High School last year by racial taunts from fellow students. He also had a knife pulled on him by a stranier as he crossed Sherman Avenue because of bis color, she said.

"That's not discrimination," she said. "That's life-threatening; that's bate."

Wassmuth has maintained all along that the task force doesn't exist just to oppose the overt racism of the Aryan Nations. He realizes that the journey toward equality isn't over, but admits the task force has no particular itinerary

now.

"We in the task force have never known for sure what the next year holds," explained Stewart in an interview at his North Idaho College campus office. Stewart, who replaced Wassmuth as president of the fledgling Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, chairs the college's political science department.

The two activists paused to discuss the future of the task force almost a year to the day that Coeur d'Alene received the first Raoul Wallenberg Civic Award from the Wallenberg Committee of the United States. The city was honored for its human rights achievements.

Wassmuth was one of three local representatives who traveled to New York to accept the honor.

According to Wassmutb, the future thrust of the task force likely will ce.nter on the following issues: • Covert local prejudice against Native Americans.

Task force members plan to circulate petitions at Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. --Oay (See Task Force on page 8)

Task Force celebration here at North Idaho College in support of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe. Tribal leaders have been frustrated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Services in their bid to gain funding to construct a health facility in conjunction with the city of Plummer.

Wassmuth also wants to see Idaho history books rewritten to accurately reflect the role of Indians in the state's development and a possible cultural exchange between white Coeur d'Alene students and tribal members.

• Education.

The task force is working with local school districts to develop programs dealing with prejudice and discrimination. Additionally, it cosponsors the Martin Luther King Day celebration, which has attracted about 1,000 participants in each of its first two years, and was a driving force behind the Coeur d:~ene Library's extensive human

rights section.

• Legislation.

The organization is supporting a bill that would coordinate hatecrime reporting in Idaho.

• Continued involvement and support of Stewart's Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. The five-state organization grew out of the task force's first Human Rights Celebration in July 1986.

The organization recently voted to disband the summer celebration.

Wassmuth exP.lained that the event had served its purpose: to alert other Northwest states to the imminent danger of the white supremacist movement and to send a message to Aryan Nations leaders that racism won't be tolerated here.

"That message was sent loud and clear," he said.

The King Day observance is sufficient to show the community's ongoing stand against racism now, he said. The celebration is scheduled

(Continued from page 1) from 10:30 a.m. until noon Monday at NIC. The event will be broadcast live over Cablevision's Channel 13.

King Dar, the libr~ry's human rights section, enacted legislation and the coalition support the task force's ongoing efforts, Stewart said. The most important matter left undone, he said, is to find funding for a full-time coalition office and staff.

The Courage Foundation could provide that funding if it selects Wassmuth for its first award. That comes with a $30,000 stipend, paid to the recipient's favorite charity or organization.

Wassmuth is a finalist for Courage Foundation honors. Winner of the award may be announced by the end of the month.

Stewart, an NIC instructor since 1970, said a coalition office is needed to document and respond to racial incidents in the Northwest.

During his two months as coalition

president, Stewart has received reports of such incidents in Roseburg and Portland, Ore.; Kent, Wash.; and Montana. Community leaders from Westminster West, Vt., contacted him six weeks ago after racists burned a cross on a black family's lawn.

The attention created by the growing list of honors - the Coeur d'Alene chamber's Distinguished Citizen of 1985, the Giraffe Project's recognition in March 1986, the Idaho Statesman's acknowledgement and now the possible Courage Foundation award - tends to embarrass Wassmutb. He tries to share those honors with the 250member organization.

Yet he realizes that be is a rallying point for the local human rights movement.

"I've been thrust into a spot," he said. "Sometimes, things have gotten a little out of hand. I happen to think God was involved."

Despite his religious background,

Wassmuth will continu~ to resist pressure to incorporate a Christian slant to his human rights message.

That would be inapproriate, he said, because so many human rights advocates - for example, those in the Jewish community aren't motivated by so-called Christian principl~.

"We need to keep this on a common denominator," he said.

Task force leaders are busy rewriting their bylaws to add more structure to the organization, par- . ticularly now that the supremacists are fading as an outside unifying force.

To this point, composition of the 15-member executive committee bas been informal and haphazard.

Wassmuth said be has been·amazed )low the right people seemed to have gravitated to appropriate leadership spots. The new bylaws will designate slots for minorities on the executive board. Currently, there is a spot for a representative

of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe.

A Jew and a black also are part of the current board.

The key to the change, said Wassmuth, is to make it without becoming bureaucratic or drowning the task force's enthusiasm. It is necessary, he said, because the top committee "has become too lily white."

Neither Wassmuth nor Stewart know what awaits the local and regional human ri~hts movements.

Stewart predicted that what is happening now in the Northwest someday will be recorded in history books - maybe as a footnote - as a positive example of how equality and fairness won a victory at the close of the 20th Century.

Until then, he said, the fight has just started, and it involves a lifelong commitment.

"What is left undone," said Stewart, "Is much greater than what has been done."

AS The Spokesman-Review Spokane Chronicle

Spokane, Wash., Sun., Jan. 17, 1988

• Task Force leadership IS diverse;. its aim isn't •

By D.F. Oliveria Staff writer

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations bas maintained a steady membership of about 250 during the last two years.

Formed in· late 1980 in response to a racial incident near Hayden Lake, it was dormant for 18 months after the 1983 Idaho Legislature.

During that session, lawmakers passed a malicious harassment bill that was written and backed by the task force in resp<?nse to growing incidents of racial and religious harassment in North Idaho.

The task force was revived in fall of 1984 under the leadership of the Rev. Bill Wassmuth, pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Coeur d'Alene. News of violent crimes perpetrated by The Order, an offshoot of Richard Butler's Aryan Nations, was the motivating factor.

The organization is governed by a 15-person executive committee, including the chairmen of its six committees: public affairs/ speakers bureau, community involvement, victim's support, education, community response and legal.

Following are profiles some key executive committee members: Marahall Mencl, one of the region's most successful real estate agents, was prompted by self-preservation to join the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

He had no idea that Kootenai County was an Aryan Nations stronghold when be moved bis family here from Los Angeles in March 1980. Several months later, be was

shaken when white supremacists painted swastikas and graffiti on Chef Rosen's, a Hayden Lake restaurant owned by a fellow Jew. Mend, 48, was one of a handful of people who met at Rosen's afterward in a show of support for Rosen. That gathering was a forerunner of the early task force movement.

"I was there for self-preservation," said Mend, chairman of the Community Response Committee.

"I wanted to know who was going to be on my side."

Mend's transformation into a human rights advocate parallels the evolution of the task force. At first, he was concerned about personal safety. Then, bis concern was one of economics. He felt that the presence of an Aryan Nations compoll!ld north of Hayden was hurting busmess.

"I bad a tough time dealing with the problem in a positive way," said Mend, a disciple of the positive-thinking philosophy. "I felt we bad to get rid of the Aryans, stomp them out. That wasn't the answer.'

More appropriate, Mend said, was the response advocated by task force leader Bill Wassmuth: "Saying yes to human ri~ts is the best way to say no to preJudice.'' He believes the only thing missing in North Idaho now is a diversity of races and religions.

Ginn• DeLong first encountered prejudice more than 50 years ago in her native Ohio.

The minister who lived across the street from her family wouldn't

let his children play with a neighborhood Jewish family. Outraged, Ginny's father, an attorney, led the fight to oust the bigoted pastor.

"I was given a background of accepting everyone with dignity no matter what he believed," DeLong said.

DeLong, 58, is a First Presbyterian Church elder and wife of a local veterinarian. She heads the Victims Committee of the task force. Her training in hospice care gives her insight into dealing with people who have gone through a traumatic exm:rience.

'It makes me angry that others take advantage of a person solely based upon that pe.rson's color or name," she said, adding that her work with the Victims Committee also helps her understand bow complex the problem is.

The DeLongs moved her from Ohio 14 years ago. Dave DeLong bad been captlvated by the area while stationed at Farragut Naval Station during World War II. A full-page newspaper ad, sponsored by the Aryan Nations, tarnished some of their enthusiasm for their new home. She joined the task force three years ago to combat the spread of white supremacism.

Since then, DeLong said, she also bas developed feelings for "people on the other side of the fence," the white supremacists themselves.

They're victims of their own hatred, she said.

Walt Wa•hlngton was told by friends in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that he'd lost

his mind wbe.n be aMounced bis in- with the help of the Panhandle tention to move to North Idaho.

Area Council's business incubator.

Hadn't he been reading the paNorm Qlaael, a Coeur d'Alene pers? The Panhandle was widely attorney, can't remember when he known as a haven for racists, they hasn't been involved in human said. rights causes.

And Washington, 49 and a 13Gissel, 47, long has been active in year veteran of the department, is the Idaho Association of Retarded Citizens - representing the most black.

"I almost didn't come," be admit- Powerless of minorities - and was mstrumental in the 1960s in opented.

Washington moved here in Octo- ing the Delta Tau Delta fraternity ber 1986, one month after white on the University of Idaho campus supremacists bad bombed the home to Asian-Americans.

Gissel didn't immerse himself in of the Rev. Bill Wassmuth and planted four bombs around the city the local fight for human rights unof Coeur d'Alene. He bad been at- til Bill Wassmuth reactivated the tracted to the area 12 years ago task force three years ago. Previduring a white-water raft trip on ously, he did some work with thenCity Attorney Dana Wetzel drafting the Salmon River.

Re bad purchased a house in the state's malicious harassment Coeur d' Ale.ne earlier in the year blll, which became law in 1983. and bad to be talked out of selling it As chairman of the task force Speakers' Committee, Gissel bas after the bombings.

Washington admits he felt intimi- shouldered much of the demand for dated during his first six months leader Bill Wassmuth's services as here. That feeling returned the fol- a speaker. He bas traveled widely lowing summer when the Aryan and spoken to diverse groups, Nations held its annual world con- among them the Asian Reform Alligress at Richard Butler's com- ance Association, a human rights organization of convicts at Washpound.

However, in the 18 months he's ington State Penitentiary.

Although his work with the task been here, Washington said, be hasn't been subject to racial slurs. force limits his free time, Gissel In fact, he believes, people have said it also has enriched bis life imgone out of their way to be friendly measurably. It has given him an opportunity to meet civil rights leadto him.

"I have bad nothing but good rap- ers. port with everyone I've met," he He feels the battle against racial said. "I have felt less threatened and religious intolerance doesn't here than in Los Angeles." require the presence of groups like Washington is attempting to start the Aryan Nations. a seafood outlet, WWJ Enterprises, "To do our job as well and com-

P.letely as we want to," be said, 'will require us to continue in existence long after the Aryan Nations becomes a footnote in social history books."

Tonr Stewart is considered by Bill Wassmutb a like-minded brother in arms in the regional war against racism and prejudice.

So it would have been natural for Wassmuth to lobby for Stewart when charter members of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment met in Helena, Mont., in December to choose Wassmuth's successor as president.

But the Catholic priest said he couldn't campai~ for Stewart because the coalition had become "too Coeur d'Alene-oriented."

Still, the coalition executive board selected Stewart.

"He's much more systematic and organized than I am," Wassmuth said of his friend . "I tend to fly by the seat of my pants."

Stewart, 46, is bead of the political science department at North Idaho College. his parents said he was born an activist; by age 9, he was writing congressman in his native North Carolina in support of civil rights legislation.

In 1960, Stewart was involved in a frightening racial incident, he said. He was a freshman at Western Carolina University, campaigning for a Jewish candidate for Congress. A group of students ran the car in which he and the candidate were riding into a ditch.

Stewart has been at NIC since 1970.

Father Bill to leave Cd'A Priesrs future plans unknown

By NILS ROSDAHL Speclal to the Press

The Rev. Bill Wassmuth, pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church and nationally known leader of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, shocked parishioners Sunday by announcing his resignation.

So stunned were church members at Wassmuth's announcement at the end of services that few joined in the recessional hymn.

Father Bill, as he is affectionately known throughout Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and the Northwest, is leaving North Idaho in June. He declined to say why he is leaving or where he is going, other than to say " I have to resolve some personal issues." He also declined to say whether he would remain in the priesthood.

The announcement comes two weeks after Wassmuth was named 1987 Citizen of the Year for Idaho.

The honor by the Idaho Statesman newspaper of Boise primarily was in recognition of his work in the Idaho human rights movement, an interest which many people believe may be leading him to another calling away from his devoted parish in Coeur d'Alene.

Wassmuth, however, would not say what his plans are.

Coeur d'Alene Prass file ohoto

Father BIii on Sunday announced he will leave Coeur d'Alene.

" I need time to deal with personal issues in my life; it (the decision) doesn' t have anything to do with you," he told members of the 750-family church. "I've had good years here. " I want us to work together these next five months; I don't want this to be considered a lameduck time," he said. " I want these months to be a time to energize each other. In my heart I'm at " This last announcement peace with this decision. I've spent doesn't come out good anyway that a lot of time with it. I want the I do it," Wassmuth told his par- coming months to be a positive ishioners Saturday and Sunday. time. It' s the changes in our lives " After more than a year of that have brought us the most thought, I've chosen to end my growth. " time at St. Pius and Coeur d'Alene.

Idaho Catholic Bishop Sylvester

Treinen has known Wassmuth might leave s ince last June, Wassmuth said. Treinen will begin the process of selecting a new priest for St. Pius in February and will announce his choice several months later, Wassmuth said.

Originally from Greencreek, near Cottonwood, Wassmuth was educated in the Northwest and ordained in Greencreek in 1967. He served parishes in Caldwell and McCall and held diocese positions in education before coming to St. Pius in 1979. During the past nine years St. Pius grew from 450 to 750 families, prompting Wassmuth to spirit a drive two years ago to build a new sanctuary to seat more than

750 people. St. Pius has three services each weekend.

Wassmuth became actively interested in supporting human rights through his involvement with the Cult Awareness Center in Coeur d'Alene in 1980. In early 1985 he was asked to head the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations when the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group with its national headquarters north of Hayden Lake, increased its activities.

In September of 1986 Wassmuth made national news when his house was bombed, allegedly by white supremacists. He escaped injury when the bomb was detonated at the rear entry to his house.

Wassmuth still chairs the Task Force on Human Relations, which will honor the memory and ideals of the late Dr. Martin Luther King at a dinner tonight. Wassmuth said it is coincidental that his resignation announcement comes on the weekend honoring the sla.in black human rights leader.

Last year Wassmuth helped organize and served as chairman of the five-state Northwest Coaltion Against Malicious Harrassment, formed to prevent actions by hate groups and individuals.

Efforts of the Task Force on Human Relations and the Northwest Coalition have led to passage of five pieces of human rights legislation by the Idaho Legislature. A year ago Wassmuth was co-recipient of the Raoul Wallenberg Civic Award, presented in New York City to the City of Coeur d'Alene for its human rights achievements. Wassmuth now is being considered for the Syracuse Uni-

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'He will never be forgotten' Wassmuth word brings dismay, regret

DISMAY I.

Dismay and regret topped the reaction this morning by Coeur d'Alene residenta at the news that the Rev. Bill Wassmutb plans to leave the Lake City.

Tony Stewart, president of the Northwest Coalition against Malicious Harassment, called Wassmuth "one of the most extraordinary citizens this community bas ever bad."

The coalition is much stronger since Wassmutb's involvement , Stewart said.

Wassmuth is past president of the group.

"Father Bill bas done more in nine years in this community than many of us do in a lifetime," Stewart said. "He's the kind of leader you don't replace."

The coalition will reorganize its leadership and continue to work against malicious harassment, he said.

Kootenai County Undersheriff Larry Broadbent, also active in the coalition, was sad- 1i: dened by the news. t " It certainly will leave a real empty spot in the lives of... those who have worked closely 1 with him," Broadbent said.

P11me ... DISMAY, page 10 -.-'I

,

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Wassmuth , whose civicmindedness was obvious through his involvement with various boards and committees, will be sorely mlaed, Coeur d'Alene Mayor Pro Tern Dixie Reid said this morning.

Council President Reid is acting mayor while Mayor Ray Stone is on vacation.

"That's the worst news I've heard in just forever," Reid said. "They say everybody's replaceable, but this is one case

where I really question that."

Wassmuth bas been a contributing citizen to Kootenai County, County Commissioner Evalyn Adams said this morning, adding that all of Kootenai County will miss him. " We would wish him well, whatever his future is," Adams said.

Sadie Brooten, past regent of Catholic Daughters, was " shocked " by the news.

Wassmuth's parting is a great loss to the community, she said.

"He's a man with outstanding leadership and organi1.ational abilities," she said. "He bas

contributed a lot of himself to the area."

Although Wassmuth bas not announced his future plans, Stewart was convinced that wherever he goes, he will retain his commitment to human rights. " Knowing Father Bill, he will continue on with the same dedication to humanity he's bad here," Stewart said. "It's im¡ portant to look at how lucky we were he was here nine years."

Broadbent agreed. " He will never be forgotten," he said.

10 THE COEl.l_R D'ALENE PRESS Monday. January 18. 1988

LEAVE

paid to the charity or organization of the recipient's choice.

Regarding his human rights inCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 terests and his plans to leave Coeur versity Foundation Award, which d'Alene, Wassmuth said, "I feel would include a $30,000 stipend

very blessed to have served alongside such outatanding people, and I am confident that they will quite capably continue the great work that still needs to be done for human rights."

WassmU.th leaving CdA Leader of human rights movement resigns as church pastor

By D.F. Oliveria

Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE - The Rev. Bill Wassmuth, guiding light of the human rights movement in North Idaho, bas resigned as pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church, effective in June.

Wassmuth announced bis decision privately to the Catholic parish council Thursday and publicly to bis congregation beginning with the Saturday evening service.

He declined to discuss bis plans and would say only that be ls leaving for personal reuona. He also wouldn't say whether be plans to

remain in the priesthood, but did say be will leave the immediate

area.

"It wasn't a sudden thing," Wassmuth said in an interview following the third annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at North Idaho College, where be spoke briefly.

The 46-year-old priest said be bad been considering such a move for several years bad talked to Idaho Bishop Sylvester Treinen of Boise about it last June.

In 1985, be was appointed to bis second six-year term as pastor of the congregation of 920 households.

ana

He is the fourth pastor of the 25¡ year-old church.

Parishioner Nils Rosdahl said the congregation was shocked by Wassmuth's surprise announcement - so much so that few joined in the recessional hymn at the end of Sunday's services.

Rosdahl, a North Idaho College journalism instructor, quoted \Vassmuth as telling the congregation: "I need time to deal with personal issues in my life; it (the decision) doesn't have anything to do with you. I've bad goocf years here.

"I want us to work together these (See Leavbag OD page 6)

next five months; I don't want this to be considered a lame-duck time.

I want these months to be a time to energize each other.

"In my heart I'm at peace with this decision. I've spent a lot of time with it. I want the coming months to be a positive time. It's the changes in our lives that have brought us the most growth."

Dave Peters, head of the St. Pius parish council, sa.ld the church was saddened and shocked.

"The most important thing, though," said Peters, "is that we support Bill. He supported us all those years."

Peters described Wassmuth as a minister who lived the Gospel as well as preaching it.

Before Wassmuth, Peters said, be was just a Sunday Catholic. " He challenged people to make their parish life the center of their life," Peters said, "and through his involvement as a commun.lty leader, he showed us it was OK to be Catholic and part of the commun.1ty."

Peters is legislative committee chairman of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

Wassmuth is task force chairman.

Wassmuth, known as " Father Bill" to both parishioners and task force members, said in the interview be won't miss the spotlight.

An attempt on his life by white supremacists in September 1985 thrust Wassmuth and the work of the task force into the national limelight. Three men affiliated with the Aryan Nations allegedly tried to assassinate him by placing a bomb in a trash can at bis back doorstep. No one was hurt.

As a result of the bombing and his work with the task force,

Wassmuth bas won such honors as the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen Award in 1985, the nation'll Giraffe Project award in March 1986, and the 1987 Citizen of the Year of The Idaho Statesman. He is a finalist for Syracuse University's first Courage Foundation award.

"It has gotten a bit out of hand," said Wassmuth. "The spoWgbt belongs on the whole task force.

There bas been a bit of a myth created around me. It's become a little bigger than life."

On the other hand, he said, the bombing and subsequent awards have been instrumental in enabling

,

The Rev. Bill Wassmuth is leaving for personal reasons. his organization to push successfullf for tough human rights legislation in Idaho and launch the fivestate Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment.

Wassmuth said bis congregation bas "plenty of ener~ and steam" to continue without him. " If there's a significant decrease in energy of the parish, task force and coalition because of my leaving, that's more of a reason I have to go."

North Idaho College instructor Tony Stewart, a longtime friend of the priest's and new coalition president, said Wassmuth is one of those few people who are irreplaceable.

However, be said, there is a deep level of commitment among task force members and the work will continue.

"We are lucky we bad Bill for

nine years," Stewart said. "Most of mittee is ex~ted to approve those changes at its February meeting. the same impact as he did in just In his remaining five months nine years." here, Wassmuth said, he would like Wassmuth's announcement to oversee a smooth transition in caught his closest friends on the task force leadership and concentask force by surprise. Executive trate on his duties as a minister. committee members Marshall "I have a whole lot of pas toring Mend and Undersberiff Larry to do,'' he said. "I would like to do Broadbent said they didn't know he that as wholeheartedly as I can." was considering such an action unWassmutb entered Catholic semitil after the priest had told his par- nary at age 14 and has been a priest ish. for 20 years. Originally from Wassmuth said he hasn't Greencreek in Lewis County, he groomed anyone to take over his was ordained in 1967 and became role as task force leader. However, assistant pastor in Caldwell. He latbe said, bis pending decision er was pastor at McCall and in the motivated him to push for a res- education office of diocesan headtructuring of the organization's by- quarters in Boise before coming to laws, to provide a chain of succes- Coeur d'Alene on June 6, 1979. sion.

During his tenure, the congregaThe task force executive com- tion ÂŁ11!W from 450 families to. 920. us in our whole lifetime don't make

I - 11- f r

Task force's leader difficult to replace If there's one thing the Rev. Bill Wassmuth won't tolerate, it's intolerance.

For the past nine years, Wassmutb has been pastor of St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church in Coeur d'Alene. But be is more widely known as the chairman of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

In those two roles, be bas been not only a spiritual leader to the members of his parish but also a model of conscience and courage to his community.

When North Idaho found its moral integrity under assault by a band of white supremacists who hoped to make the Inland Northwest an enclave for bigotry, Wassmuth was an influential leader in the counterattack.

But on Monday, Wassmutb announced he will be leaving bis pastoral post in June; be said be plans to move from the Coeur d'Alene area then.

Wassmutb, who helped provide a steadying influence in the community during times of tension and strife, will be missed.

It is worth noting that Wassmuth's announcement came on the federal holiday set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil-rights leader whose accomplishments and whose cause Wassmuth regularly praised.

The question now facing the Coeur d'Alene area is whether Wassmuth's departure, coupled wiill an apparent decline in the influence of Hayden Lake-based white surremacists, will result in the demise o the Task Force on Human Relations and its work.

As for Wassmuth, he said in an interview conducted before he made bis plans known that the group's work is Just as important as ever: "It would be foolish to say the problem has gone away."

That is about what you'd expect from a man who once said the Aryans actually may have done Coeur d'Alene a favor by forcing the community to examine the issue of prejudice.

Indeed, being alert to bigotry is an ongoing task for any enlightened community, but Wassmuth's leadership in that effort will be bard to replace. ¡ Recognized nationally as well as locally for his work, Wassmuth bas emphasized a positive approach. When the Aryans chose North Idaho as the location for national gatherinP-, the task force, under Wassmuth s guidance, responded not with placardwaving protests but with a separate Human Rights Celebration in Coeur d'Alene, thus capturing media attention as an upbeat counterpoint to the ugliness going on nearby.

"If we are not actively promoting justice and equality, then prejudice and racism will start coming back into our society," the clergyman once told a high-school group which bad been inspired by the Task Force on Human Relations.

In bis relatively brief tenure in this area, Wassmutb has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments. He was named the Idaho Statesman's "Man of the Year" for Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce's "Citizen of the Year"; he helped found Hospice of North Idaho; be led the drive to create the five-state Northwest Coalition A,ainst Malicious Harassment; he was mstrumental in Coeur d' Alene's selection for the Raoul Wallenberg Civic Award presented a year ago in New York.

For his work, Wassmuth has been rewarded with a _pipe bomb being planted at his home 10 September 1986.

The bomb, later linked to the Aryan Nations, injured no one but did $3,000 in damage.

In the wake of the Challenger spaceshuttle tragedy in 1986, Wassmuth said of the seven astronauts who died that they were "special people who chose to climb rather than to watch."

Like those climbers, Bill Wassmuth bas been an irrepressible citizen activist, too offended by injustice to sit by and watch.

SPOKANE CHRONICLE, TUES., JAN.19, 1988

AS

IDAHO

Wassmuth won't discuss ¡plans

By D.F. Oliveria Staff wnter

COEUR d'ALENE - The Rev. Bill Wassmuth, guiding light of the human rights movement in North Idaho, won't discuss his plans after resigning as pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church, effective in June.

Wassmutb announced his decision privately to the Catholic parish council Thursday and publicly to his congregation beginning with the Saturday evening service.

He declined to discuss his plans and would say only that be is leaving for personal reasons. He also wouldn't say whether he plans to remain in the priesthood, but did say be is leavmg the immediate

The Rev. BIii Waaamuth

ism instructor Rosdabl reported Wassmuth telling the congregation: "I need time to deal with personal issues in my life; it (the decision) ooesn't have anything to do with area.

"It wasn't a sudden thing," you. I've bad good years be.r e.

Wassmuth said in an interview fol" I want us to work to~ether these lowing the third annual Martin Lu- next five months; I don t want this ther King Jr. Day celebration at to be considered a lame-duck time.

North Idaho College, where be I want these months to be a time to energize each other. spoke briefly.

"In my heart I'm at peace with The 46-year-old priest said be bad been considering such a move this decision. I've spent a lot of for several years and bad talked to time with it. I want the coming Idaho Bishop Sylvester Treinen of months to be a positive time. It's the changes in our lives that have Boise about it last June.

In 1985, be was appointed to his brought us the most growth." second six-year term as pastor of Wassmuth, known as "Father the congregation of 920 bouaebolds. Bill" to both parishioners and He is the fourth pastor of the 25- members of the Kootenai County year-old church.

Task Force on Human Relations be Parisbloner Nils Rosdahl said the chairs, said in the interview be congregation was shocked by won't miss the spoWght.

Wuamuth'a nrpriae announcement An attempt on b1a life by white - ao much ao tfult few joined in the supremacists in September 1985 recessional hymn at the end of Sun- thrust Wasamuth and the work of day's services. the task force into the national In a report to the Coeur d'Alene Umellgbt. Three men affiliated

Press, North Idaho College journal-

with the Aryan Nations allegedly

tried to assassinate him by placing a bomb in a trash can at his back doorstep. No one was hurt.

As a result of the bombing and his work with the task force, Wassmuth bas won such honors as the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen Award in 1985, the national Giraffe Project award in March 1986, and the 1987 Citizen of the Year of The Idaho Statesman. He is a finalist for Syracuse University's first Courage Foundation award.

"It has gotten a bit out of band,'' said Wassmuth. "The spotlight belongs on the whole task force.

There has been a bit of a myth created around me. It's become a little bigger than life."

On the other band, be said, the bombing and subsequent awards have been instrumental in enabling his organization to push successful~ lf for tough human rights legislation in Idaho and launch the fivestate Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment.

Wassmuth said his congregation bas " plenty of energy and steam" to continue without liim. " If there's a significant decrease in energy of the parish, task force and coalition because of my leaving, that's more of a reason I have to go."

North Idaho College instructor Tony Stewart, a longtime friend of the f.riest's and new coalition presiden , said Wassmuth ls one of those few people who are irreplaceable.

However, be said, there is a deep level of commitment among task force members and the work will

nine years," Stewart said. "Most of us in our whole lifetime don't make the same impact as be did in just nine years."

Wassmutb's announcement caught his closest friends on the task force by surprise. Executive committee members Marshall Mend and Undersberi.ff Larry Broadbent said they didn't know be was considering such an action until after the priest bad told his parish.

Wassmutb said be hasn't been grooming anyone to take over his role as task force leader. However, be said, bis pending decision motivated him to push for a restructuring of the organization's bylaws, to provide a chain of succes-

sion.

The task force executive committee is expected to approve those changes at its February meeting.

In his remaining five months

here, Wassmuth said, be would like

to oversee a smooth transition in task force leadership and concentrate on his duties as a minister.

"I have a whole lot of pastoring to do," be said. "I would Uke to do

that as wholeheartedly as I can."

Wassmuth entered Catholic seminary at age 14 and bas been a priest for 20 years. Originally from

Greencreek in Lewis County, be was ordained in 1967 and became assistant pastor in Caldwell. He later was pastor at McCall and in the education office of diocesan headquarters in Boise before coming to Coeur d'Alene on June 6, 1979. continue.

During his tenure, the congrega"We are lucky we bad Bill for tion grew from 450 families to 920.

DE SERET NEWS t

~ocal-Regional/ 81-819 Deaths/819

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Sunday, January 17, 1988

Utah

Aryan Nations, admittedly racist aid led by Richard Butler, center, has been linked to slaylngs, bombings and vandalism. The organl~tion plans to open a regional headquarters In Utah.

ARYAN ' Conti,nued from 91

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!Aryan .Nations

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.. an NaUOns -an admitted racist organlzaUOn - plans to move Into Utah, have sparked protests from local reslden._ and denouncements from COrM1Unity leaders. Be. hind the ang,y rhetoric on both aides, what Is the truth about this neo-Nazl faction? The Deaeret News . .nt 'Staff writer Lee Davidson to the group's base in north• em Idaho to find oul Here is his reporl

Br Lee Davidson

I

Deseret News staff writer

Sid Rosen is the type of man the Aryan Na~ tions hate. , He is a Jew, so the Aryan Nations claim he is a literal descendent of Satan. Worse, he has a farm ·rn Hayden Lake, Idaho - !'the world capital of the white race (which has no J ews)," according to !Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler.

I, "l used to own a restaurant up here," Rosen 'said. "The Aryan Nations painted swasti\(as and l~ther Nazi graffiti all over it. They also kept .J nding me hate mail and threats. It got scary.

1 ou just can't live like that."

I

•'!

When Rosen heard that the Aryan Nations

t . Id Utah news reporters it is a non-violent

t

group and not really white supremacist, he just ~ughed. "That's amazing. Lies, they're just

f Illes."

The Rev. Bill Wassmulh, a Catholic priest in earby Coeur d'Alene, calls them "pure, unadul~ rated lies." He remembers how Connie Forta white divorcee with racially mixed children ),u harassed into moving away from Idaho. The an Nations say their worst enemies are whites who marry people of other races.

The Rev. Wassmutb, who leads local opposition to the Aryan Nations, also remembers enjoying a quiet night on Sept. 15, 1986 - until a bomb exploded on his porch, sending shrapnel r 'l:l'.:

Please see ARYAN on B2

' {lying through his house. Som~ I.anded at his feet , but he escaped mJury.

In following days, Coeur d 'Alene seemed under enemy attack as thr.ee bombs exploded around ~w~, includi1tg one at the federal building. A fourth failed to explode. Police arrested four Aryan Nations sympathizers. One confessed to ~elpmg plant the bombs; trial is pending for the others. · Those are a few examples of how neighbors of the Aryan Natio_ns s~y the group - despite ~ts claims m 'Utab - is violent, racist, suprematisl and dangerous. But they also s~y it appears to be on its last legs m northern Idaho, with only a few supporters left. And Butler , its leader , is scheduled to face a sedition trial in Ft. Smith, Ark., next month. : · But Butler , whose Aryan Nations group is officially called ~e <?hurc~ of Jesus Christ Christian, ms1Sts his church is healthy, is following God's laws and is non-violent · What is the truth, and what is 'mer.e hype about the Aryan Nations?

Following are claims a~d c.ounter'clairns about the group s violence, sup,remacist views and plans to open a regional center in Utah. · VIOLENCE - Dwight McCarthy, ·regional head of the Aryan Nations ,fu Utah and host of the short-lived "Aryan Nations Hour" radio show, told the press that the church 'is n~t -violent, but a splinter group from 1t .called The Order is. . Members of The Order have been convicted of murdering a Jewish talk ·show host in Denver, a Missouri · Highway Patrolman and a while supremacist they thought had become informant. They also have been ~harged with robbing armored cars and banks and conspiring to ov.erlhrow the government. · But McCarthy said it is unfair to !)lame a larger group for what a : splinter group might do. · The Rev. Wassmuth doesn't buy th at argument. " Butler's a p reacher, ~ and he has to take accountability for · his words. Many people have become violent after listening to his preaching." · · The Rev. Wassmuth adds, "Butler has called for a race war . . . and for ' the takeover of the five Northwest. ern states as a homeland for the Aryan race. That's preaching violence." . · Another sign that close ties may ·exist between the Aryan Nations and The Order is that the mother of The Order member David C. Tate, who was convicted of murdering a highway patrolman in Missouri, wor ks in the Aryan Nations' office with Butler.

A Life magazin~!eport said she

-an

PHOTOGRAPHY/ LEE DAVIDSON

Hayden Lake's Church of Jesus Christ Christian includes a cross - and a tower for defense. stood proudly when a congress of supremacist groups meeting at the Aryan Nations compound in 1986 applauded and cheered when the name of her son and other members of The Order were read.

But she told the Deseret News.

"They were not applauding the killing. They were applauding my son's devotion and courage as a young Christian. He wasn't guilty. It was s'elf-defense."

Some of Butler's rhetoric condones violence, even if it may not promote it. For example, he complained during an interview about the manslaughte r conviction of youths in Howard Beach, N.Y., for chasing a black onto a highway where he was struck and killed.

"They were just doing what comes naturally, that's protecting their neighborhood and race from intrusion," he said.

Part of Butler's trouble with sedition charges comes from his desire to o\'erthrow "ZOG," Zionist Occupied Government, which is what he calls the current U.S. government. He claims J ews have secretly bought out or taken over the government and misconstrued the Constitution.

He wants Ar:vans to overcome ZOG and " take back control of the government." Butler wrote in his "Platform for the Aryan National State" that " a ruthless war must be waged against any whose activities are injurious to the common interest and that there be an immediate ·cessation of dishonoring_the nation."

But he still insists that he and his group are not violent. "We can achieve our goals peacefully. We don·t advocate murder or anything like that."

Richard F. Masker, who lives at the Aryan Nations compound but does not belong to the Aryan Nations Church, also swears that the group is not only non-violent but is kind.

When Masker lost his job as a supervisor of the Corvallis, Ore., water department for publicly declaring his anti-Semitic views, he said bis wife divorced him and he had no money and nowhere to tum. " Rev. Buller invited me to come stay with him. No one else on earth would.help me."

But the Rev. Wassmuth says Masker and Butler have ulterior motives when they make claims of non-violence. "They can't be openly violent, or they would be arrested. But the record of all the people around them who have been arrested for violence spea.ks for itself."

WHITE SUPREMACY - When McCarthy canceled the "Aryan Nations Hour" radio show in Utah, be complained that the press incorrectly described his group as "white supremacist."

He said, " We do not oCCer any claims to racial superiority . . . We do not say U1at whites are better than anyone else. We are not white supremacists, we are white separatists.

We believe races should live separately."

Buller also told thepeseret News

that he is not really a supremacist whee it comes to believing that one race is smarter or physically more capable than another. But he said the white race is " the elect" chosen by God to r eceive his fullest blessings.

He said the Bible was written only for that race.

Butler's teachings go further. He claims that J ews are literally the descendants of Satan.

"He (the devil) seduced Eve. Cain was the result, and the J ews are his descendants." He.said Jews are jealous of God's promises to the white race, and they want to destroy it by encouraging such things as racial intennarriage.

Aryan Nations writings also say that blacks are " pre-Adamic," meaning they are essentially descendants of cave men who were around before Adam and Eve. Meanwhile, the Aryan Nations

says that descendants of white Europeans are members of the lost tribes of Israel and are the "chosen·• Hebrews mentioned in the Bible - not the Jews. Th..ey even eat only kosher foods approved by the law of Moses and avoid " unclean" items such as pork and web-footed birds.

Some of Butler's writings even call for action against other races.

His "Platform for the Aryan National State" says, ·• All hybrids called Jews are to be repatriated from the republic's territory, all their 'Wealth J)e red istributed to re-

:,~ o;.7 p:;up1ti, an<l it shall be a center wherever it was that reportcapital offense to advocate or pro- ers were calling from , he said, •·we mote Jew Talmudic anti-Christ Com- plan to establish a center in the Salt Lake-Ogden-Provo area somewhere. · munism in any manner."

Masker said Aryan Nations-affili- We haven't decided exactly where · ated groups also promote an amend- . yet."

He said McCarthy will likely be ment to the U.S. Constitution proposed by California lawyer James 0. asked to open the center. Because McCarthy lives in the Salt Lake area, Pace.

It would repeal the 14th and 15th it would most likely be opened there amendments (which gave blacks the - although no final dec.ision has , right to vote and ordered that all been made, he said.

Undersheriff Broadbent said the' blacks. not three-fifths, be counted · when determining how many con- Aryan Nations has constantly been gressmen each state should have). It losing members in northern Idaho, would add words to strip U.S. citi- and may not be strong enough to ex-· zenship from anyone whose ancestry pand. He said they only have about is not at least seven-eighths Europe- 10 (ollowers who consistently attend meetings in Hayden Lake, although an.

Buller also bas an interesting defi- 25 were at a meeting attended by the · nition of "racist," which some may Deseret News.

He said the group used to attract find revolting. He says, for example, that some politicians who call bis at least 60 to 80 members regularly, group racist are racist themselves and several hundred attended annubecause they are married to white al weeklong congresses of supremaspouses. "You are racist if you stay cist groups at Butler's compound. with your own kind."

The Rev. Wassmuth said many fol· BuUer wants to "live with his own lowers have dropped out or beeri kind" and bas called for the estab- jailed for a variety of offenses. " But lishment of a whites-only homeland Hitler started out small, too." ' ' in the states of Washington, Oregon, Butler will not say how many Idalu>, Montana and Wyoming members his church has and' saip and eventually all of America. Mc- members try to keep their membercarthy said the church also dedicat- ship secret because of persecution ed Utah as a "gathering place of that may result. For exam ple, hls Israel." church was bombed in 1981. He Kootenai .County Undersheriff blames that on the Jewish De fense Larry Broadbent, who bas handled League, but Coeur d'Alene officials investigations of the Aryan Nations say it was probably bombed by Aryfor years, said, "When you see what an Nations splinter groups. they teach, how can they say they are Even though many civil rights anything but supremacist? There's groups, the LDS Church and numerno way they are just separatists." ous politicians have denounced racARYAN NATIONS PLANS FOR ism in response to the Aryan NaUTAH - Both McCarthy and Butler tions' announced plans, Butltff still say they still plan within months to says his plans for Utah are firm. open a regional headquarters of the " The opposition has just come church in Utah. frorr. groups influenced by the MarxBut neighbors in Idaho say they ist-Zionist coalition, such as the Morthink the Aryan Nations is so weak mon Church, the governor of Utah that it is unlikely it could do much and the mayor of Salt Lake City. I expanding anytime soon - especial- still think there are a lot of good ly with Butler facing trial next month whites there." : and possible jail time thereafter.

Some Utah-based polygamists They say the church may simply be have shown interest in some Aryan saying such things to seek publicity Nations teachings. That may come in and sympathizers in Utah. part because one of Butler's cohorts Evidence to support that may - the Rev. Robert Miles of the come from bow Butler handled in- Mountain Kirk in Cochoctaw,, Mich. quiries from the press about his - once said Aryans should consider plans (or Utah. When the Deseret using polygamy to outbreed )other News called him about B'nai B'rith races. claims that the Aryan Nations might Butler said he thinks Mil~ was move into the state, Butler said he joking. Regardless, he thinks ~veral indeed would open a center in the polygamists have attended his annuSalt Lake area, the base of the Deser- al congress of Aryan Nation groups et News. anyway. l Soon after when The Standard-ExThe Rev. Wassmuth said if ~utter aminer in Ogden called with similar is convicted and sent to jail, the Aryquestions, Buller said his group was an Nations might just end f'P in coming to Ogden. Later, reporters Utah. "They wouldn't have a1*thing based in Provo said he told them his to hold them here, they aren't atgroup would have its regional center tracting any more following ln the there. area. And laws in Idaho are ~much ] When asked by the Deseret News tougher on them. So they might just . why Butler said he would establish a look (or somewh~re else to go;"

1

Church's 'love' is built on a 1· foundation of l: shared hatred I/f =: «

By Le• Davidson Deseret News staff writer

. --4 ·

t:

:: •

HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho - The Aryan°"Naf. : tions Church congregation shows an unusuav : mixture of love and hate. ,

F:

They greet each other with warm handshakes • and occasional hugs. As a young mother tak~ the coat off a toddler, h er other baby is ent~:1 . tained by a kindly woman playing peekaboo.

Meanwhile, another woman spruces up the pulpit with flowers while chatting amicably with Ii woman warming up the organ.

lt

But the group's love is based on their mu~ hatred - hatred of how they claim Jews, blacks and Communists have ruined their America aw\ are destroying their white race. \.

t

That hate is demonstrated on the church walls · with a Nazi flag, a cloth sampler depicting Hitl~ : ~ · (who they say is a holy man), a flier saying tht~: group will achieve its goals by the sword if neces,.: • saey and another poster showing robed Ku Klux •: Klansmen singing "We'r~ dreaming of a 'White}:: / Christmas." t

>

Outside the church is a high watchtower, built : : · after the church was bombed in 1981. A guard :station, left unmanned this day, has a sign warn. · : ing that·the compound is for "whites only.". sign pointing out the parking area says "Wel- come Kinsmen." A German shepherd and two · Dobennans wander the area. ~ ~:

A·:

.

After members finish greeting each other; • they sling racial slurs freely, constantly repeat; ~ ing "nigger, Jew, queers" as they criticize the .· government (which they call ZOG - Zionist (?c· : • cupied Government), the media an~. non-whit, · groups, which they call "mud races.

The small congregation sees itself as the last chance to preserve their race and America .: against overwhelming odds. That belief holds · them close.

Please see CHURCH oh 82.

28

Dl:Sffl[T N[ WS, SUND/\',', J/\N U/\FlY 17, 19M

rHOTOGRAPHY/ LEE DAVIDSON

Richard Butler, In church office, wants Aryans to overthrow 1h~ '.;;ovcrnment, which he says has been bought out by Jews.

R"~ m c t SEW91GC41

--

,·:~mtinurd from B 1 'f<irha: d Gutter appears in lhe hall nd r rilir11.es some stories in that ·npnur.g·s newspaper as inspired 1.Jy .Tt>11·s. In passing. hi! also refers to the ,)cal Catholic prirst wt:n !rads oppo1!ion lo him as "that Jewish prie~t."

011ly 27 people arc in thl' church :ht>n the ~crviC'l'S l>egin - 13utkr. a ,isiting reportl.'r. l(J other adults, our children a11d ~hrce teenagers .After three hymns, 1311tlcr stnnds f the pulpit and announces lhe topic f his sermon. "There is an elect .-:irel." I le l><•gi ns l,1p111g lht• s1~r111011 ~ srll to sy111p:ithi1.1·rs around the ::ition. . Ile tell,; the small crowd how the iblc is meant for only I.hr whilti ire. lie tells how some "mud races" ave even worshiped white cxplur·· i who fo111~1 l lhl'm hc<'ausc the !1ite r:1ce is "a spcci:il huly pc·oplt• above the re.st of the people 011 rrth. " But he c;ays 'he J c1,~. Communists td mud rare:; art> jc•alous of tho:.~ ('~sint:s .ind arc :,!>rl'ading li,•s 10 :ikc whilr :; drprrl'ialc th<'ir lil'riFo r r xmnplc . J\ulh-1· la ter t.·11~ a

reporter that the JPwish holor.1u~t in World War II ncwr happcn1·.J - it was just a 111yl h sprcacl to cl immish till' ad1it'Vt'IIU'IIIS of llitlt'I' in r('lrnildmg (;l'rmany and set:kin:; to str,•111:,rtlwn his raC't'. llutlcr·s S('rmon clim:ixc•s with a call for a rl'lurn to cons! itut :nnal prim:iplPs. which he sajcl int<'nrkd t\11wril':l lo lie for whitrs only. Thf' coni.;n·galitm st.111ds anct pr:i:\'r. for that. whilt• llw lll('ll giw Nazi s:1lu1t•s with howcd 111':lds. l!ull1•r lh<'n talks :ibuut tilt' tt,ut,th ti111 P:-. his followers :ire fan ng and how Ihe <l1·vil 1s trying lo dcstroy them thro111:h such things as h:iving him face sl'C!ition charges next month in Ark:111sas for allegedly conspiring to m·t>rlhrmv the govl'rn· lliCllt.

I le says Christ was also rhargPd wrun~fully ll'ith Sl·ditiou . ''l'm j11$I gl:id they don't use crnrifixiun any 1111,re." lw sa_vs. Thr11 he quickly predirts tl1al Ill' will llf• found 11ot guilty.

The ('1 111gn·gation stauds while he p rays fo r n11 1tin11Nl strc11glh for his follcmns to ~ta11cl up against thc> 7.i must thrl'at.

Thi• rhf'l1•rit· I ht·n cuds. for a ft>w minutrs, as tlw JlH'l'l ing adjourns a nd nwn,lwrs l'at do111: hn11ts ancl drink rnff't·P :111ci t.-ilk :ig:ii11 nf their love· fo r 1·ad1 ,,tiler. nu t inrvital,lv they :;0011 arv l:1l kin~ again abo ut iii~ t,·rn1.1,, 1h1:,1:, 11,,. 11•11,l ,·1w ,·<: ••,... '!"·

~

. . A(i'fVA.N tJATao~~ .

'!!ffl't,lUt' .. , ..

Activeiy· fighf racism, Idahoans urge Learn from our mistakes- don't let bigotry take root, pastor warns

By Loe O·c:ivlc!son Deserel News strill wn t,)r

com JR D't\LENK Idaho -

On

M onday , lllaho will cclchra tc Mar-

tin Luiher Kin~ Day. Iror:ically. one reason it is a state holiday is urcau,e nf the prcs0nt'e of the racist Aryan Nat ions in the state·s upper 1xmhandlc. ··Mar l in Luther King Day was one of t!le hill:. the Ll'gislnlurc passed to send a message that ld,1h 0 i~ 1101 a l1omc for racists," s;iid Tony Slewilil. tl politic.ii scici.1·c p.-ofc•55or .ii North Idaho College and prt'sidc •nt of th" Northw<•sl Conlition ;ig:1iust l\1 ..11i('io11:; I l arnssmcnl.

Co<'ur d'N ,·nc' offu:i:i!s havr also r.illit·d support against raci sm by lobbyin~ ror l:1ws to makr. rndal and r eligious ilar:1ss111,' nt a felony, cn·Htin~ (ll'rrn:11:Pnt groups lo moni tor a nd figlll bigotry. trnching abou! prcjudic,· in schools and BIii Wassmuth supportin1! )('nd" rs who sp!:!:ik oat - - - - - - - - - -- again$[ hir:ol r_v TIii' H!'\'. Bill \V:1ssm11lh. a C:ilholic· pri,•s!. :-..iys thn:;c actions have lwt•n so M1rcc:;sflll th:it Corur d'Al"nc "1s the city that met the l\r)·an Nations philosophy and <IP· fratcd il."

I le saul that is helping the an•a change it." ima1;r from bring a haH'll for higots to being one of the t hr nnlHITl·s lc;idrrs in fighting rac-

ism. It <·H·n w0n thi:- 1,aoul \\'allcabl'rg Ci1w ,\ wnrd from N<'w York City !;1st year for i i~ efforts.

Marshall Mend

Tony Stewart

The HC'v. \Va s~muth. who f('Jds the Kootenai Collnty Task fo'orcc on I l uman l :l'l:itinns, warn s that Utah must Jc:1rn from some of Co<'ur cl'.i\lt•nc·:; early mistakes anct ('ffilll:ll<' iL~ lal ('r !illCC'CSSCS if it wants to prcv!'r, t till' Aryan Nations nnd other supn.:nrnrist.s from taking root.

l l (' s:tid IIH' bir,gcs! mistake lliat Idaho niadc was to just !,•,we supa• maris l groups alone at first. "\Vlu•n Ilic· ' \ J}·~111 Nnt wns · . first c~mi•. pr.oplc thought lhC'y were ~1 a7.y .UHi would just go away if we 1g11nrc<1 !hem. But supremacist

groups assume that silence mc>ans' approva l nf lhC'ir views, ... lie sa1'd .

•. Th ;i~ :1 ll ~wl'<I cirrulalio n of

Ru~'.ur~ Niggrr Target" posters an<!

N1gi;:1•r Hunting I.i!'cns<'s ...

Also, some residents were harassed, such as Jewish farmer Sid Rosen and the racially mixed family of Connie Fort.

Still, Coeur d'Alene Mayor Ray Stone doesn't recall much formal opposition to the Aryan Nations until some local realtors felt the area was gaining a reputation for racism that was scaring minorities away. " It bit them in the pocketbook because of lost commissions, so they organized."

Realtor Marshall Mend said, "The whole state was affected. A realtor from the southern part of the state was at a national convention. When he told another realtor he was from Idaho, the man said, . 'Oh, that's where those racists are,· and walked away. Idaho became known for raci.sm more than anything - even potatoes."

The task force that formed was able to convince the Legislature to enact a malicious harassment law in 1983, which made threats such as those against Fort's family a felony. The Rev. Wassmuth said the task force then thought racism was declining, so it did little else for a year or so - which was another mistake.

He said the Aryan Nations was thought of as an irritating, even revolting, but essentially harmless

small group of eccentrics. But as Mayor Stone said, "There were probably more FBI men than Aryan Nations members in town" investigating violence by an Aryan Nations splinter group called The Order.

In late 1984 and 1985, The Order's murders, robberies and plots to overthrow the government were revealed in indictments. That shocked leaders into action.

The Rev. Wassmuth was selected as p resident of the task force, · and he decided to fight racism with a positive approach. "Saying 'yes' to human rights is the ~est way to say 'no' to prejudice."

The group raised public awareness with rallies, posters, symposiums and even an educational television series. It coordinated a large observance of Martin Luther King's birthday, including special instructional programs in all schools and a large rally at a city park.

To counter expected negative publicity about a weeklong congress of Aryan Nations groups in July 1986, the task force organized its own rally against racism which attracted 1,000 people from the Northwest, plus national media attention. That led Stewart to propose formation of his multistate coalition.

The following September, the Rev. Wassmuth's home and sever;, al other buildings around town were bombed. To keep the town from reacting violently, Stewart said, the Rev. Wassmuth's task force held a rally. The task force and other groups have constantly spoken out against racism at every opportunity since.

The Rev. Wassmuth said •11~• 1 think we have turned the facl tha[ ' we have the Aryan Nations into a / positive thing. Exposure to its ex~ treme and radical racism helps ' , clarify prejudic e in th.e community.'' , ..

Stewart adds, "You couldn't find any community in the Northwest more sensitized to prejudice than Coeur d'Alene. We still have bigots, like any town. But we dis0

courage racism here and \Yon 't pui • · up with harassment."

A sign of success, Stewart said, is that a Ku Klux Klan leader who · recently moved to the Northwest . from Chicago decided to live in Spokane, Wash. - and not Idaho.

"Yle think our laws discouraged lum from coming. We hope it will encourage others to leave." ...

As Mend said, " Nobody here is buying what the Aryan Nations is selling anymore.·•

Spokane, Wash., Tues., Feb. 9, 1988.

THE SPOkESMAN-llEvl

Group's attack on prejudice seen as example for others

By D.F. Oliveria Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE - The story of Kootenai County's fight against prejudice likely wfll become a natlonal how-to role model, distributecl by the Anti-Defamation League.

The Kootenai County Task Force OD Human Relations baa been asked ~ an AOL repreaentative to prodiace a videotape detailing its sevbattle aplnst racial and oas intolerance. offlciall from the Jewisb orPDilation'a national office in New York like tbe ta~ a ~ to local baman rlabta leader TOiiy Stewart, they wUfdlatrlbate it u an edacatloaal tool to other communities faclq almUar problems.

Taik foree eneutive board members dilcmed tbe tape and tbelr fatve pis Monda:, while .,.. filmed by a C.TV crew.

Tliilk¡ ~ leaden will be fea-

~

tured on the "For Our Times" religious program, scheduled to air Feb. 28, according to producer Patricia Layne.

Executive committee members voted unanimously not to charge for their videotaped history.

"We bave other ways of raising money,'' said attorney Norm Gissel. observing tbat communities interested in aucb a tape probably wouldn't have Orfanizecf groups and J)OS,1ibl7 couldn t afford i l Bob Hugnes of Seattle, a Justice Department mediator who attended the meeting. said aucb a tape would benefit Tihn p-eatly. In the

put, he said, be baa gone into troullecl communities armed with no more than a few newspaper cllppdescriblq bow to combat prej-

:ft:e.

=cted

''lt would be an outstanding road map to use for communitlei that are go through tbe

same problems you people did a few years ago," Hughes told the committee.

CBS' Layne said she was impressed by the organization, diversity and substance of tbe task force.

The movement, she said, "is not something that grew up around a crisis and is going to disappear.

These people seem to be committed to what they're doing." â&#x20AC;˘ Layne headed a three-member news team tbat spent three days filming in the Inland Northwest. A portion of tbe filming took place Sunday at Whitworth Presbyterian Church in Spokane, where Stewart and Gissel lectured.

The CBS crew also filmed segments for tbe two-part program in Brooklyn, N.Y., ana on the University of Michigan campus.

Stationed in New York City, Layne works for CBS' non-commer(See Role model OD pqe 2)

Rolemodel<cont1nued from page 1) clal Religious and Cultural Broadcast unit. "For Our Times" delves into religious and moral issues. In 1979, it began airing as a successor to "Lamp Unto My Feet" and "Look Up and Live."

Layne bas produced programs on such issues as a review of 1987 from a religious pers~tive, the church's involvement in South Africa, black Catholics, Native American Catholics and the merger of the Lutheran churches.

She learned of the task force through a New York Times article in January.

Other segments will feature the tension between blacks and Hassidic Jews over limited housing and other social resources in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, and prejudice against "Jewisb-American priocesses" or JAPs. Once applied lightly, Layne said, the term now is used to mock monied young Jewish women.

About 40 network affiliates, including Boise and Portland, will carry the program. It won't be seen locally wiless task force leaders can persuade the Spokane affiliate to pick it up.

Task force leaders were featured OD NBC's " Sunday Today" in mldJanuary.

Layne said she didn't bother to IDterview Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler because CBS bas stock footage and news and magazine articles available of him. Besides, she said, he's not the focus.

In other business, the executive committee spent a brief time brainstorming its future mlssion. Priorities listed were: • An attempt to make relations between area whites and the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe in the late 19808 and '90s the best ever. .

"U this task force can't get along with the Coeur d'Alene tribe and can't bridge the communication gap and cultural differences," said Gissel, "then it will have failed in its mission.''

• A continued emphasis on educating Coeur d'Alene children against the evils of prejudice.

• Seeking grants to serve as seed· money for creative arts contests. 'lbe songs, paintings and stories produced through such activities would be used "to help children understand people of color better.''

• Promoting Idaho's tough human.rights laws to other Northwest states.

• Making new minority residents feel welcome in Coeur d'Alene.

• Inviting the Coeur d'Alene tribe to present seminars explaining its problems and spelling out ways this community can be of assistance.

the caeur d 1alene

, N0. 173

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1988

Idaho leading theway Tennessee Is taking anti-harassment law as model for Its blll

By JAY GRIFFITHS Legislative reporter

BOISE - Despite rumon that Idaho is a white-supremacist haven, a Tennessee senator has used a Gem State maliciousharassment law to anchor identical legislature in the Deep South.

A bill, which passed the Tennessee Senate unanimously and is DOW before the House, mates barusment based on race, color, religion, ancestry or national ori,m a felony punishable by five years in prison and $5,000, said Tenneaee Sen. Steve Cohen. " When you hit somebody' and damage somebody's property that's wrong, but when you do it beca.use of their color, you are attacking a whole race," said Cohen D-Mempbis, Tuesday. ' "We are not trying to set up any racial or religious superiority that's what America is founded on," Cohen added. "U it's not just one person (who is attacked) it's a much more heinous crime than attacking an individual."

Cohen said Tennessee e:1periences sporadic incidents of rac~y motivated activity. He said racial demonstrations held on Martin Luther King's birthday are not uncommon.

1 SECTION, 20 PAGES '

25CENTS

Cohen also pointed out that Pulaski, Tenn., is the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan movement

which began after the Civil War ' Cohen said be expected the law to be difficult to enforce because proving that an incident was racially triggered is difficult. " As much as anything it's just to get the attention up, it may a little consciousness-raising," he said.

Cohen said the National Conference of Christian and Jews headquartered in Memphis, fint saw the Idaho law, approved of it and forwarded it to the senator. ''Once I got the material I thought the malicous-barassment bill was a good law and I thought it was needed in the state of Tennessee," said conference director Harry Moore.

Moore said the conference is a nationwide group with offices in many large cities including Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and Denver.

"We are a pretty mild organization," Moore said. " Our methodology is primarily education and promoting goodwill among the people of the nation."

Moore said the Tennessee Human Rights Commission also supports the legislation.

Those who have worked on human rights and malicioua-barus-

ment laws in this state seemed proud that Idaho bas been singled out by Tennessee.

"I'm delighted an area in the Deep South bas used a model aet out in Idaho," said Rep. Jeanne Givens, D-Coeur d'Alene. "I think Idaho can be proud they were the first to take this important fint step in human rights."

Givens is sponsoring a bW in the

I

Idaho Senate that would direct law enforcement agencies at both the county and city levels to keep separate statistics on crimes spurred by race or national origin.

If the bill becomes law, Idaho will be the first state in the Northwest- the region the Church of Jesus Christ Christian (Aryan Nations) bas targeted as its Aryan homeland - to have such legisla¡ tion, Givens said. .

Sen. Mary Lou Reed, D-Coeur d'Alene, said Idaho's image of being on the cutting edge of the

human rights movement is not really surprising. .

A spate of bills last year, Given'a bill this year and another that would grant subpoena power to the Human Rights Commission are helping to reshape the state's reputation.

"It's kind of interesting that maybe we're being used for model human-rights legislation " Reed said. "We just used alm<Mlt every opportunity to send a sipal that we're not going to be a haven for white supremacy."

t6 THE COEUR D'AlfNE PRESS Friday. February 26. 198e

Task force members agree to changes Wassmuth: We're still in transition

By DICK WOLFF

Press staff writer

The Kootenai-County Task Force on Human Relations agreed to major changes in its organization Thursday night at North Idaho Col· lege, including expanding its board of directors, electing new officers and adding a finance committee to its structure.

The Rev. Bill Wassmuth, presidentof thetaskforce, calledforan executive board meeting Wednesday for the new officers.

Wassmuth will step down as president, but remain on the task force unW he leaves Coeur d'Alene in June.

"We're still in transition," Wassmuth said. "These changes spell out the terms of how we're going to accomplish our goals."

Wassmuth arrived late from unanimously approved the changes.

Boise after members had

Tony Stewart, task force member and president of the Northwest Coalition against Malicious Harassment, said the new bylaws fostered " the dignity and worth of every human being... and ~ tected due process."

A slate of 19 officers wu elected, to include memben from the Coeur d' Alene Indian Tribe; NIC chapter of the task force ; Bil-

panic, Asian-American, Jewish, black, religious and education communities, local governments of Kootenai County and Coeur d' Alene Chamber of Commerce.

The new board members are: Dominik Curley, Barb Crumb, Estella Gonzalez, Julie Meyer, Marshall Mend, Walt Washington, Dana Wetzel, Jim Belden, Bill Jennison, Larry Broadbent, Doug

Racial study to be released When The Rev . Bill Wassmuth breezed into the task force meeting Thursday night from his late flight from Boise, he brought with him a hint of fresh air over the reputation the Ary~ Nations left in Northern Idaho.

The Idaho Commission OD Human Rights and the political science department of Boise State University have concluded a statewide survey of racial attitudes, Wassmuth said.

" And when it's released (next) Friday it will put to death the impression that North Idaho is the racist part of the state," he said.

Wassmuth said the results of the survey would be released by Gov. Cecil Andrus during a meeting with the commissioa and the board members of the Northwest Coalition on Human Rights.

The coalition will release the survey results to the public.

Cresswell, Norm Gissel, Tony Stewart, Ginny DeLong, Dave Peters, Skip Kuck, Lisa Andenon, Al· len Wasserman, Hulda Bridgeman.

The financial committee will be responsible for new funds, and is required in order for the task force to receive tu exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, Stewart said.

In other business, the task force agreed to focus on Martin Luther King Day as its annual community event in lieu of Community Response Day, and to oppose a bill in the state legislature establJlbing English as the legal language of Idaho.

Wassmuth spent most of tbe day in Boise testifying OD behalf of the Hate Crime Reporting Act and others, and told task force members the reporting bill would probably become law. " There doesn't seem to be any opposition there at all," he said.

A second bill the task force considers important for its human relations goals - a proposal giving the Commission on Human Rilbt subpoena power - seems less sure

of adoption, Wassmuth said.

"It came out of the House committee with a compromise;" be said, " it has a sunset clause which terminates the subpoena power automatically in two yean unless it is re-enacted."

Although the proposal may pus the House, Wassmuth sees opposi• lion building against it in the Senate.

"It's got some problems," be said. " Major corporations and business interests are objecting to subpoena powers for fhe commission on the grounds that it puts an adversarial edge on human rights efforts," ~e said. " We've a lot better chance getting it through today," be said.

The bill establ.lsbing English u Idaho' s legal language came out of committee with a "do-pus" recommendation, Wassmuth said, " but I don't think it will mate it through.''

Stewart said the proposal bu points both for and against it, "but our organization has consistenUy fought racism and this bill is ra· cist."

Programs won't be seen here North Idaho's activities in human rights achievements are miking great national press, bat few individuals here will lee it.

Rep,na1 television statlom 11111 local cable will not air three major Procrams involvtnc local cttilml and human rights laael. Satellite

dlsb owners witb deoodl"I de9ieel may be able see some.of tbe ~

,rams.

The Rev. BW Wusmath, bead of the Kootenai County Tut Force on Human Relations and putor of St. Pius X Catholic cbarch will be a pest Wedne8day OIi "Geraldo," I television prOIJ'un boated by Geraldo Rivera.

Wusmutb's home wu damapd by a pipe bomb September 11, 1111, a few mmtbs after bll poap orpnlred a demonstratlon to coater a national meettna of wblte â&#x20AC;˘ premaclsta near Hayden Like.

Guests ln addition to Waamatb, according to Rivera's office, are Bobby Penon and Pratt, two black prilon from North Carolina victimlzed bJ racism and preJadlce and Cathy Sarris of Detroit, Mlcb., wbo after a series of barasslng calla at her home and office wu attacted 11111 raped by a man who rema1na at

J=

large.

Geraldo may be viewed on KIVITV in Nampa, KPVI-TV ln Pocatello, and on GaJuJ 1 atel-

llte channel Gl/OS, WGN-TV. WGN's alrlng ii at 9 a.m.

Sunday. ~ will air tbe ftnt of two " For Oar Times" Pf'Oll'IIDI

featuring tut force memben Norm Glaell and Tony Stewart, filmed several weeu 110 at Wbltwortb Presbyterian cbmdl In Spokane. But Spokane's af.

cm

flliate, KREM-'tV, does not carry tbe program.

Satellite dlsb owners may be able to catch it during cm feeds, but tbe schedule does not lilt specific programs. The tut force 11 consldering showing its copies of tbe programs at a public meeU.,..

Panel OKs commission 路subpoenas 路 Human rights bill to House for vote

See related stories, p. 16

By JAY GRIFFITHS

Leglslatlve reporter

BOISE - The state Human Rights Commission should have the authority to subpoena witnesses and documents to aid its investigations, the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration voted Thursday.

But the committee hedged its bet, saying the full House should amend the proposal to bring it up for review after two years to see that authority bas not been abused. " Why not give it a try and see bow it goes," Rep. Janet Hay, RNampa, said.

The vote to pass the bill to the House for the amendment was unanimous. A previous vote tbat would have killed the bill in committee failed by five votes to Dine.

tomey General's office would aecure a subpoena from district

court.

Bill sponsor Rep. Pete Black, DPocatello, said only Hawaii and Idaho lack subpoena powers for their human rights commissions, which devote much of their time investigating employment discrlmlnation claims due to race, ~ L ~~or, national origin and age.

Maruyn Shuler, director of the state Human Rights Commission, said the subpoena authority would be useful in persuading people to 1111 WASIMUIH testify. Many people want to come lithe bill becomes law, the com- forward, but cannot became they mission could apply with the state fear they will lose their Jobi beAttorney General's office for a cause of it. Compelled by a subsubpoena to bring in witneaes, poena, those people would have no testimony and documenta. Tbe At- choice, she said.

Subpoena power is essential in those cases where thole with information regarding discrimination are- uncooperative, said the Rev. Bill Wassmuth, a Coeur d'Alene Catholic priest who beads the Kootenai CountyTaskForceon Human Relations. ' 'I know that subpoena authority is an intrusion, but it is an intrusion only when there is evidence tbat people's rights are being violated," Wassmuth said. " As written, the law rnlnlrnlw the possibility of abusing autbority," added Wassmuth, a1ao put president and board member with the Northwest Coalition Apinst Malicious Harassment.

However, the Idaho Aslloclatioo of Commerce and Industry which represents some 270 bulinesses in the state - oppoaes the bill, spokesman Matt Eames said. " (Subpoena power) bu been, OIi 路 PINN ... V01I, back page

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occasion, used as a

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tool," Aimes said. " .. .I don't know if it would be ever be used that way in this state.'

He added that the current avenues of investigation work well and the subpoena power is unnecessary. Those with employment discrimination complaints funnel them through the commission, which investigates and, if warranted, tries to forge a 'no-fault' settlement out of court. li necessary, the commission路wlll take the Yiolators to court.

S.u rvey reveals prejudice Official testifies Drugsfilled Nov. 4 bv Mede<

By David Newman

Stall wr,cer

BOISE Prejudice against Southeast Asians, Hispanics and other minorities remains strong in Idaho, according to a survey conducted last month for human-rights or~anizations.

'I'm alarmed at the results, frankly," said Marilyn Shuler, director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission.

But Shuler and Tony Stewart, president of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, said the survey shows that most Idahoans have friendly feelings toward racial and religious minorities.

Boise State University's Survey Research Center conducted the survey during four days in February, interviewing a random sample of 444 respondents throughout the state. Poll director Gregory Raymond said the results are accurate within 5 percent.

The results, released in a news

SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1988

conference Friday, show that 26 to repeat that, on an average, we percent of Idahoans harbor "verv have favorable feelings." unfavorable" or "unfavorable1' Surveyers used the term "refufeelings toward Southeast Asian gee" in their interviews because refugees and 25 percent have such that is the most common descripattitudes toward Hispanics, the tion and perception of Southeast state's largest minority group.

Asians in the United States, said "I'm making an interpretation Raymond. Southeast Asians acthat unfavorable feelings are preju- count for 0.1 percent of the state's dice," said Shuler. population, about 1,000 out of 1 milSuch feelings were expressed by lion residents.

14 percent of respondents against Interviewees were asked to blacks, 10 percent against Ameri- gau~e the "temperature" of their can Indians, 7 percent against feelings toward the minority J ews, 7 percent against Japanese- groups on a scale of zero to 100, Americans, and 2 percent against with 50 degrees being neutral. whites.

Raymond said the temperature The respondents were 94 perce.nt method is a more accurate indicawhite. tor of sentiment than yes-or-no Raymond said interview subjects questions. were "quite willing to speak out.

The average response was 55 dePeople at both ends of the scale grees for Southeast Asian refugees, wanted their views known."

57 degrees for Hispanics, 62 de"I 1uess I have to think about grees for blacks, 65 degrees for how I d feel if I were a Southeast J ews, 67 degrees for American InAsian refugee," said Shuler. " It is dians, 68 degrees for Japanesealarming to us to pick up a number Americans and 73 degrees for that is that high. However, I want whites.

Complete results of the survey will be released in about four weeks, and will contain information about the feelings between Idaho's Mormon and non-Mormon residents.

The results will be broken down for six regions in the state. "The northern part of the state looked good" in preliminary results, Shuler said.

The survey might be repeated in three to five years to measure the success of efforts aimed at solving the problems of prejudice, said Shuler.

Human-rights activist Rev. Bill Wassmuth of Coeur d'Alene said the survey offered "good news, bad news."

"Frankly, right now we're at the mercy of hype," said Wassmuth, referring to national publicity over white supremacist groups operating in the state.

Although the survey's results are not altogether positive, Wassmuth said, "One of the values of this is

THE SPOKESMAN-REvlEw '1,obnt t,ronitlt

that it gets people talking."

Other highlights of the survey include: .. Two-thirds of Idahoans believe changes in the civil-rights laws during the past 20 years have helped minorities without hurting whites. .. 13 percent believe someone in their households has been discriminated against because of race or religion. . . 2 percent believe someone in their households bad been harassed or hurt because of their race or religion. . . 70 percent of those reporting harassment or discrimination said the incidents bad not been reported to authorities. . . Better-educated respondents reported fewer unfavorable feelings toward minorities.

Friday's news conference was called as the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment held a board meeting at a Boise hotel.

Gov. Cecil Andrus congratulated

the five-state organization for its work and said, "The welcome mat is not out for hate group~ in Idaho.

Quite the contrary. Idahoans have spoken, over and over and over, with one voice. They have said, 'We won't condone violence, we won't tolerate hate and we won't provide a safe haven for those who do.' " Also Friday, the coalition gave its first Communication Award for Outstanding Reporting in the Field of Human Rights to The Spokesman-Review / Spokane Chronicle and The Idaho Statesman newspapers.

The Spokane newspapers were honored for their three-part series on the Nez Perce, Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai Indian tribes. Reporters Cynthia Taggart, D.F. Oliveria and Theresa Goffredo wrote the series.

The Boise paper was honored for its stories on Ada County's black community, written by Charles Ellinger.

PAGEA6

0 ldahq&ri$.:¡P!~j_udiced?

SUniE!y: A little Gregory Raymond

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based on those feelings."

The Idaho Statesman

The good news: The survey reported that Idahoans generally have favorable attitudes toward the Asian refugees, Hispanics, blacks, American Indians, Japanese-Americans and Jews.

Those groups are targeted by white supremacists such as the Aryan Nations, which has headquarters in Hayden Lake.

"Idaho has gotten a bum rap," said Tony Stewart, president of the Northwest Coalition against Malicious Harassment Inc. "For the first time we can point to accurate data showing that Idahoans have generally friendly

Wh ile an alarming number of Idahoans harbor negative feelings toward certain minorities, Idaho has gotten a bum rap as sympathizing with white supremacists, human rights officials said Friday.

The bad news: A new Boise State University survey indicated one Idahoan in four has negative feelings toward Hispanics and Southeast Asian refugees.

Marilyn Shuler, director of Idaho Human Rights Commission, said she was alarmed at that. "Actions often take place

feelings towards minorities and Jews."

Gregory Raymond, director of BSU's Survey Research Center, said the survey had a 5 percent margin of error.

It was released at a meeting at the Owyhee Plaza Hotel of the coalition, a human rights group with representatives from Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Wyoming.

In about four weeks, the coalition expects to issue a final report that also will probe feelings between Mormons and non-Mormons.

See PREJUDICE, Page 4A

PreJ~dlce ~. ~ .~~Continued from Page 1A

Idahoans polled on prejudice How do Idahoans feel about 50 degrees were "cool," or ethnic minorities? unfavorable; above 50 degrees, Boise State 's Survey "warm," or favorable.

Research Center interviewed a The results: random sample of 444 Idahoans by phone in midAverage Percent GR1UP reading LWlfavorable February. Some 94 percent of this croes-section of the state's SE :Aslan' retugees 55 26 people are white.

Hispanics 57 25 / ·. · 62 ; 14 The respondents were asked '·Blliclis.·,. . 65 7 to gauge the " temperatwe" of -. Jewi ' their feelings toward classes of Idahoans on an Imaginary ,:·1~::·

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property destruction due to· race or religion. " The welcome mat ls not out a Only ~ percent of the refor hate groups ln Idaho," Gov· spondents said they knew where Cecil Andrus told the coaUtlon to report such incidents. . .

Friday~ "We do not tolerate their • Idahoans of varying ages dlfnonseruM, or their crackpot th~ fer little ln feellrigs. toward mlrtes." · .. horttles and Jews, ·in contradlcAndrus said It was time w~ tlon to the common · view that . ralie a generation of young peo- older l*Jple are more prejudiced. pie who will leave behind that • Nearly two-thlrda of . Idadark specter of prejudice and ha- hoans believe that antl-discrtmltred." . . nation laws .enacted ln the past 20 .The survey gauged the feelings ~rs ' have helped minorities, of a representatlv~. sa~pte of ~ while Jc;i affecting whites. · Idahoans on a .temperature . · • Idahoans are evenly divided scale. Ratings above 50 d e ~ jabout whether prejudice toward were warm or favorable. . · inlnorltles exists in . the . areas The averages ranged from 55 where they Jive. . ~ :· ,. degrees for Southeast Asl~ re~- 1 • In ; general, educatl~ ~m-. gees ~ ST degrees for HlsparUcs proved· attitudes toward minority to 73 percent for whites. · 8J'OOPS and Jews. ,..., ·: ·• ..~. "': · · ·. " I wish the scores were even . Non-hlah school ·ifaduates put closer to 100 degrees," said Stew- Asian refugees at an average 38 art, a professor at , North Idaho degrees and HJspanlcs at 41, while College in Coeur d'Alene. con., graduates put. the two Camilo Lopez. a Caldwell attor- ' groups' at 62 and 83, respectively. ney, was not surpmed by the te- Differences were smaller for · su1ts. He said Hispanics, Idaho's other groups, and negligible for largest minority group compi:ts- ·f eellnp toward whJtes and Allier~. . mg an estimated 3.8 to 5.3 percent lean Indians. · ... . , ,, · · •···.: of the population, feel the brunt of : Since only about 1,000 Southeast prejudice. .

Asian refugees llve Jn Idaho, the "Mdny times they endure the prejudice against them may not dlscrlmatlon because that's the reflect interaction with whites, least worry they· have," Lopez Raymond said. lte·sald tfie word said, citing survival · as their •.•refugee•• ma1, ktndle . negative prime worry. feellrigs. · · · The survey also found: . Shuler, who had the Idea for the • Thirteen percent of the re- survey, summed up the solutl.on to spondents said they tielleved that tJ1e problems wrought by prejusomeone in their household had dice with one word - edu~tlon. been discriminated against on the ; lbat. includes "people looking Job due to race or religion. lhto their hearu and saying, 'Hey, Shuler said that was very high \ffhat am I like? ' " she said. compared with the level of com- . She called for spreading Jmowlplablts to the Human Rights Com- edge of laws against harassment mission. It suggests that such In- and banning dlscrtmlnatlon in emcldents are undeM"epOrted to au- pl~ent, housing and education, thorttles, she said. as well as education on the ." Joys • Two percent of respondents of diversity." ' . : . . said someone in their household Stewart said the coelltion Is dishad been harassed, physically' in- cussl;Dg ways to develop . a proJured or had been the target of gram for schools. _ , •

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SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1988

the coeur d 1alene

1 SECTION, 14 PAGES

Racism study alarms Negative feelings found for Hispanics, refugees

STUDY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The study also indicated that education appeared to erode racial intolerance. Of those without high school diplomas, the average " temperature" toward the most unpopular of the survey group, Asian refugees, was 36 degrees.

High school graduates, however, warmed up to the Asians to the mark of 53 degrees while college graduates liked them even more warming to 63 degrees.

Only in feelings toward American Indians and whites did education appear to be a very small or DO factor at all. All three categories of education liked whites to the temperature of 75 degrees.

And only two degrees separated the three educational classes when examining feelings toward IDdi-

ans.

"I think the solution can be summed up in one word: education, and people looking into their hearts asking 'what am I lite?'"

Shuler told reporters at a 4> minute press conference at which the results were unveiled.

Little difference was seen in respect to age and a gender breakdown was unavailable.

Also unavailable was the number of people who were asked to respond, but declined.

According to the survey, 94 percent of those responding were white.

Also, 2 percent of those responding said they felt they or memben of their family bad been the target of racial or religious intolerance in the past two years. Of thole, 70 percent said those incidents bad not been reported to authorities.

25 CENTS

By JAY GRIFFITHS Legislative reporter

four-day period in February were asked to gauge their feelings for others based on an imaginary thermometer.

Fifty degrees represents DO feeling either way.

Below 50 indicates cool or unfavorable feelings and above 50 warmth.

Asian refugees averaged 55 degrees; Hispanics, 57; blacks, 62; Jews, 65; American Indians, 67; Japanese-Americans, 68; and whites, 73.

In addressing some 145 people at a Northwest Coalition Against Harassment luncheon in Boise, Gov. Andrus said the survey shows there is no widespread bate of blacks and Jews in North Idaho. " Despite what some of the national press bas reported, Idaho is not a haven for white supremacists, racists or violators of hwnan and civil rights," Andrus told the group, gathered for a five-state meeting of the coalition.

Coeur d'Alene Catholic priest Bill Wassmuth said the results of the survey were not surprising.

BOISE - Despite encouraging words by Gov. Cecil Andrus Friday, a survey on racial intolerance in Idaho bas yielded some "alarming" information. " I'm alarmed at the results frankly " said Marilyn Shuler, director of the Idabo H ~ Rights Commission. "I think it's good news and bad news. " The commission and the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment released preliminary results Friday on a survey taken to gauge racial and religious feelings among Idahoans.

The survey, which was released in preliminary form and dealt mostly with racial sentiment, showed no broad-based racial prejudice, but did indicate some troubling trends, Shuler said.

For instance: â&#x20AC;˘ Twenty-five percent of those responding said they bad "unfavorable feelings" toward Hispanics and 26 percent said they harbored the same feelings toward southeast Asian refugees. â&#x20AC;˘ Eleven percent of those responding said they bad "very unfavorable feelings" toward Hispanics and 14 answered likewise toward the Asian refugees.

Shuler said "very unfavorable feelings' ' translated into prejudice.

"It's alarming for us to pick up a number that high - that's one-quarter ," Shuler said. " However, I want out (that) on average, there are favorable

" I think alarming is a little strong," said Wassmuth, the first president of the coalition. "It manifests that there is a lot of work to be done."

Wassmuth also said that responses were broken down geographically and that North Idaho was "a little better than the rest of the state. That portion of the survey, conducted by Boise State University's Survey Research Center, was not released.

Center director Gregory Raymond said the rest of the survey data, including feelings between Idaho's Mormon and non-Mormon communities, will be released in about four weeks.

"I think the really exciting thing is that it gets people talting about it," Wassmuth said.

The 444 respondents questioned by telephone over a

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Gissel will lead county task force

By D.F. Oliveria Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE - The Rev. Bill Wassmuth once joked that he was asked to be leader of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations because be was single and lived in a brick house.

That was before a pipe bomb exploded at the rear entrance to his home on Sept. 15, 1986.

Coeur d'Alene attorney Norm Gissel isn't single and doesn't live in a brick house. But be, too, counted the cost before accepting his unanimous endorsement Wednesday br. the task force board as Wassmuth s successor.

"I thought about the potential {for violence)," Gissel, -47, said after the GISSEL 90-minute meeting at Wassmutb's St. Pius X Catholic Church. "The history of civil rights in America has been a history of violence. "l understand that. My family understands that. Civil rights activities are foundational to American society. Matters have to be dealt with. A price has to be paid.''

Gissel, though, said be doesn't expect any Incidents like the bombing that propelled Wassmutb into regional and national prominence.

In mid-January, Wassmutb announced his intention to leave his post as pastor of the church for undisclosed reasons. Since then, be has guided an overhaul of the task force's bylaws to provide the loosely knit organization with a well-defined structure and orderly method for choosing his successor.

Wassmuth chaired his last task force meeting as president Wednesday.

"You've been without a doubt the moat challenging group - in terms of energy, drive and self-initiative - and the moat rewarding group I've ever been a part of," be told the 16 memben of the new lt-penon board who attended the meeting. '"l'be hearts of this (See Tull force• page &) •

T H E ~ Thurs., March 3, 1988, Spokane, Wash.

Task force group are .in the right place. You. will be with me a long time, folks.''

Three bands shot up immediately when Wassmuth asked for nominations for president. All three wanted Gissel, and North Idaho College instructor Tony Stewart successfully made a motion to have the nomination approved unanimously.

In like fashion, nominations for the three other elected positions on the five-member executive committee were approved unanimously: Stewart as vice president; Dave Peters, secretary; and Skip Kuck,

treasurer.

Wassmutb automatically is part of the executive committee in his role as past president.

Tbe terms are for one year.

Rather than passing a gavel to Gisael to symbolize the leadenhip transition, Wassmuth handed him a replica of a menorah, a candelabrum used during the Jewish festival of Hanuka.

(Continued from page 1)-

" As leader of the task force," joked Wassmuth, "r,ou're basically an undercover Jew.' Wassmuth, a German Catholic, may have been alluding to the claim made about him by Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler that he's an undercover Jew. Later, Wassmutb said be---tlad considered giving his friend a fragment of the trash can shatte red by the September 1986 bombing of his home, but thought it too crude.

The light-heartedness between the two civil rights leaders and the rest of the directors underscored the group's unity.

Gissel said be expects that solidarity to remain after Wassmuth leaves the a.r ea this June.

"This group has operated for a long time on a consentual basis," Gissel said. "The decision-making process has been going on for a long time with many in the group who comprise the current board.

This is an organization of ideas."

For that reason, be said, he doesn't foresee a change in direction for the task force.

At a February meeting, task force leaders listed future goals as a continuing emphasis on educating the region's youth against prejudice, attention to the needs of Native Americans, additional human rights legislation in Idaho and the Northwest, welcoming minorities who move here, a nd serving as a resource to other communities dealing with racial or religious prejudice.

Gissel has been one of the quiet forces behind the task force, trave ling throughout the region to speak to a wide r ange of ,roups.

Those organizations range from an informal group of Montana residents concerned about young neoNazis called "skinheads" on the Universitr of Montana campus to a prisoners organization within the

Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.

Gissel didn't immerse himself in the local fight for human rights until Wassmuth reactivated tlie task force three years ago. Previously, be did some work with then-City Attorney Dana Wetzel drafting the state's malicious harassment bill, which became law in 1983.

He long bas been active in the Idaho Association of Retarded Citizens - which be calls the most powerless of minorities - and was instrumental in the 1960s in openOIi the Delta Tau Delta fraternity oa the Univenity of Idaho campus to Asiaa-Americaal.

ID January be stepped down from bis role u cbainnu of the Coeur d'Alene Library board after aevea yean. ID that tfme, be restoncl conftdmce in the llbnry, wbk:b bad been bllet 1>r reslpaflom and su• llqlllDt CODU'OVersy, and WU inilbwaeutal in lllOVUII it to the qaarten GD llarriloa Avenue.

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Moyers' TV special looks at coping with evil I By DICK WOLFF North Idaho News Network

COEUR d' ALENE - Public tel-

evision will air a Bill Moyers special on satellite, cable and Spokane stations Monday that Tony Stewart, president of the Northwest Coalition Agains t Malicious Harassment, says illustrates the positive attitudes developed in North Idaho in response to community confrontations with white supr emacists. " The program recognizes the many wa~ for good to. triumph over evil, ' Stewart said.

Stewart said the program offers an in-depth look at the struggles that take place within humans between the forces of evil and good. " In terms of its respect for human relations , it's the crux of what wo' re dealing with," be said.

The special report was recorded during a three-day symposium titled "Understanding Evil," which was held last fall at the Ins titute for the Humanities in Salado, Tex. Among those featured in the br oadcast are poet Maya Angelou ; holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg; dancer choreographer and author Chung-Liang Al Huang; former U. S. Rep. Ba rbara J ordan ; philosopher Philip Paul Hallie; and educator and minister, Dr. Samue l D. Proctor"pastor of New York's Abyssinian Haptist Church.

In a statement accompanying the tape, Moyers says the taping produced " an unusual series of personal testimonies on the pers istent question of the ~lationship between good and evil. " I thought a t first this would be

an exploration essentially on the dark side of human nature, but I was wrong," be said. " The people ... wind up telling their own stories of coping with evil by affirming the spirit of goodness - sharing bow to tum the worst that happens into the best that is possible." · Stewart said the testimonies il· lustrate bow, through theology, philosophy and politics, human beings deal with each other and themselves. " It made a good point that an individual can go either way," be said, " and offers good advice on

how to defeat evil in yourself.

Stewart said the program "supports the path taken in human rela· tions here - there are positive ways to combat evil."

Facing Evil is the first of a series of occasional specials on major subjects under the theme " A World of Ideas" which Moyers is creating under a grant from the J ohn D . a nd Cathe r ine T, MacArthur Foundation of Chicago.

Check television listings to find time and statjon of the special.

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NORTHWEST COALITION AGAINST MALICIOUS HARASSMENT lnvit.s You to • No-Host LunclH,on

Owyhee Plaza Boise, Idaho March 4, 1988 Noon · 1:30 p.m.

S,,.aker: The Honorable Cecil D. Andrus Governor of Idaho

Release of Survey Results: "Racism and Religious Int olerance In Idaho" Recognition of Outstanding Human Rights Reporting No-Host Luncheon

$7.25 Per Person

RSVP: (208) 334-2873

By March 1• 1988

Coalition aims for new panel

the coeur d 1alene

Lawmakers would make up board

By DICK WOLFF Press staff writer

T he Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment has invited 2.8 memben of Congress representing Idaho, ~ tana, Oregon, Wuhington and Wyoming to form an advilory committee to help the coalition ~ mote positive human relatlom.

Tony Stewart, coalition Jnlldent, said the board i,ent the letter in late February and bu already received a positive respome from some of the memben, IIDOIII them Idaho's Rep. Larry Crall· The Congresaional Adv11ory Board would be ued ''U anodler impOrtaDt

aource for • to obtain

advice on important matten," tbe letter said. 'lbe ad boc panel woald CClllllltof the two aenaton from eacb of tbe five states ~ented cm tbe coalition, plus iepreamtathll of each state - two eacb from Idaho and Montana, one from ~ mine, five from <>ream ud elpt from WasbiJlltOIL All of the statel acept Onpl have aDDC)inted iepr11t11UUNI tlo the coalition's boud of dll1lctan, Memben o f ~ lllvltal• advison include Rep. Tea PoleJ (D-Wub.), BOUN majorltJ ..... er; Sen. Allen It. tant Republican leader; ud R-.

Richard Stalllnp, memw of die Democratic Leidenblp ODmcll Other commltteea H by those invited lnclade .._ committees on educatlm. lldllD affain and Bliy;

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Stewart said improved communications with would advance work tbe ooalltloa bu conducted.

"We have the flnt mil-rilbtl corporation ,overn1nc boud" ID America wblcb parutees...• dlvene racial etlmic m1narttJ repr-. aentation," Stewart told the C.grealonal deleptioas.

"We qree with (Cffll rllldl activist) tbe Rev. (llolel) 1fDBaml that it will beeGme tbe madel fGr other repm of tbe coantry,'' Ill said. .

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.~ ., . By Colette Cowman .• '.- : represented a warm or favorable feeling. minority groups. For c.x amplc when asked their respective ratings were 55 degrees> 60 • .; ,Idaho Register editor .:;. ·: When rcpondents were broken down based their feelings about Southeast Asian refugees, degrees and 66 degrees. With Hispanics, the ~~':8~.?Di ~t~ U!e key to ~ucing ~c. on the a~ount of formal education they ~ad ·non-high school graduates rated them 36 ratings for people of those cduca(ion levels pre1u4ice -.~ -1'~FNtdc study shows exISts received, 1t showed that the mor~ education degrees, ~gh school graduates, 53 degrees and were 41 degrees, 56 degrees and 63 degrees. in I ~1~~ president ofthe~Nortb they had, the warmer their feelings towards college graduates, 62 degrees. With Blacks Some 94 percent of the sampling of people west ~ ' Against · .Matlcioiu participating in the survey arc white. ment, sai4 ~~press conference March.4 ...

• Tony Stewart, Notthwcst Coalition Against Rciulb"lth'e survey were rclcued in con- .

Malicious Harassment president, said the juncdop; ·; ttJi· I di~ North~cst, Coalition coalition is discussing ways to make currict.la A~t"-'Malicious" Harassment Board. ..of available to public school and religious Directors ineeting .at the Owyhet'~laza. The organizations that will teach the joys of diwrcoalition1ncludcs representatives from Idaho, sity and human d!~ity.

Washington; Oregon, Montana '' and. Wyoming. Formation. of the coalition -wJspear.,, Marilyn Shuler, Human Rights Commisheaded twQ years ago by the Koot_cnai County · sion executive director> said in spite of the fact Task Force for Human Relations under the that the survey docs show Idahoans have leadership 5)£.Fathcr Bill Wassmuth, St. P.ius generally positive feelings towards minoriti•!s, X ~d'Alene. .,. . it also shows "we have a ways to go" to The: ~ conducted in,.·Februaryy by,~· alleviate pr~judicc in the state.

Boise.. State;--llnivcrs~ty's s ~;:Rcst.artb·1 Speaking at a coalition luncheon prior to the Centc;r, ~ -that Idahoans ~ y·havc press conference, Gov. Cecil Andrus praised friendlf ., t ~ ·· toward..; minorities . and ' the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Jews:;.~ . ~ most a ~ ~; by~ wt>,ite... · Harassment and the Idaho Human Rights sup~ts. .like the Aryan ~. !tlODS) hea~-~ . p , · Commission 'as . ' 'respected, effec t ivc, quartercd.Jll Hayden Lake. , .~~.·1-;~tl·t1;: ~~:1 authoritativ~ voices for human rights."

On the ~ .hand, the study_"'also showed ~!!;;;\ ) The governor said the survey on racism :ind that one in. four Idahoans have negative feel. - - .~} religious fotolerancc in Idaho shows that "hate ing., toward Hispanics and Southeast. Asian ·: '· is not support# t:iy the people of Idaho" con· rcfu-e , - • ., " -;'~,~'•" ;., ' - • ·, /,.... ~. .,. ·F·t .... ·~ •1.,..., ., / .. J~..\,-'Jt~•t• trary to what some. of the national press has _Gregory J?h.D.1_. survcy ,~t~.. ):·..'?:tt.~ - reported. ' '" l J·; 1 . director, said th~ ,'1a l t· ~February, ...... ~::.,~•. , .~'S':~ . "Idaho is pot a.~ven for racists," he said. "It ,.m ~·· rou ~ ·c1, h·-··· •· ··.., t: ···t,· , .. , .. ,.,;, done ....... t ep ~ o ,a, ~.-.~ ' ·~ ~'" •··' naq .~ .-..._ ._"'!'•11o . J'.,!l ;. ,:..,.•. ~·:?it .;;tt. .

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The Spom()fl plan to release a;J"mal on the survq in about a month. ·T hat report , will include information on feelings between Idaho's Mormon '·aod non-Mormon r com- ,· munitics. . ,:_.;,·. h.~ ;,t · Survey respondents were asked t~ gauge the. PERSONAL CONCERNS-Richard temperature of tKei.r feelings toward ipinonty: Mullen, Plummer, a member of Sacred groupa .and Jews on an imaJinary ther- Heart Mission, DeSmet, and Idaho mometer. A score below 50 degrees Puffe, St. Anthony Parish, P ocatello, repracnted I cool or unfavorable feeling listen at the press conference as survey toward a src,ap. A score above SO degrees results are r eDorted on "Racism and

this state, but I can assure that they represent ''no one but"' th'emsc1ves. Most Idaho:ins :i re - downright embarrassed that they arc here ... ._...Govem~,.pointed-.to resuhs of tr.c •~survey that -sho~ that nearly two-thirds of ldaboansfeel that ~hangcs in the laws over the last 20 years regarding employment, housing and education have made things better for minorities.

"We arc making tremendous progress," he Religious , Intolerance in Idaho." Both said. . were atte·i ullng the Northwest Coalition "It is time in America that we raise a generaagalnst Malicious Harassment Board of tion that will leave behind this spectrum of DI.recto., meeting March 4 in Boise. (IR darkness and hatred and move ahead to the photo by Colette Cowman) . bright promise of true digni ty and justice for all citizens_~f this country."