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The Idaho town that stared down hate and won
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Christian Science Monitor
Posted: September 11th, 2017
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2017/0831/The-Idaho-to...
From his self-proclaimed Aryan Nations church, a retired engineer named Richard Butler preached hate to his followers. [The Idaho town of] Coeur dAlene became code for white supremacists. But what happened here offers an antidote of hope. The community came together, rejecting the vision of Mr. Butlers small band, and organizing a tenacious effort to drive them out. [Norman] Gissel and others involved in that campaign ... embraced some old-fashioned phrases freedom, equality, and justice and decided on a way to challenge the Aryan Nations. When the Aryan Nations marched, the group sponsored counter protests as far away as Spokane to draw the crowds down. For one event, [organizer Tony] Stewart enlisted local businesses and individuals to pledge money to human rights groups for every minute of a planned Aryan Nations march, and then publicly urged Butler to march slowly to raise more money for his opponents. They marched for 27 minutes and we got $34,000, Stewart chuckled. It was the groups violence that finally brought it down ... in 1998. The compounds guards ... terrorized [an American Indian woman and her son] at gunpoint. The Southern Poverty Law Center pounced on the incident, bringing lawsuits on behalf of the victims. They won a $6.3 million judgment in 2000 against Butler, and two of his bodyguards served prison time for assault. Butlers compound was seized in the judgment, used as a training exercise by the fire department and burned to the ground.
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