Aryan Nations gone, but memory remains in Idaho (interesting article)

[Mrs. Overall]

HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho (AP) - The house where Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler lived has been demolished. So has the church where he preached his racist religion. Cows graze where hundreds of white supremacists used to burn crosses in the summer. The Aryan Nations is long gone from northern Idaho, but its reputation lingers to the chagrin of locals.

When a man recently shot up the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., much was made of the fact that accused shooter James von Brunn spent a few days in 2004 in this area, living with a fellow anti-Semite before he was evicted for being too radical. "The stain is so deep," said Tony Stewart, a long time resident who helped evict the Aryan Nations. "We feel stereotyped in a way that is unjust."

At the center of the debate is Hayden Lake, a posh town of fewer than 500 people that mostly consists of a country club and lavish homes along its picture-postcard lake. Hayden Lake served as the post office address for the rural Aryan Nations compound, some five miles away, and became shorthand as the haven for hate groups. Instead of goose-stepping neo-Nazis, its streets are full of golf carts and joggers.

Right-wing political attitudes are common. It's not unusual to see people sporting Confederate flags, anti-government slogans or even a swastika tattoo. Many of the newcomers hail from California, including a large cadre of retired law enforcement officers, of whom O.J. Simpson trial figure Mark Fuhrman is the best known.

"LA cops move up here to get away from diversity," said Rachel Dolezal, director of education for the Human Rights Education Institute in downtown Coeur d'Alene. Dolezal, a multi-racial woman who graduated from Howard University, jokes that she traded one monoculture for another when she moved here in 2004.As a woman of color, she finds plenty of challenges in Coeur d'Alene. The center's efforts to bring black history programs to schools, and a black student association to North Idaho College have resulted in letters to the editor criticizing the efforts, she said.

Full Article: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/52359037.html

[MadHound]

1. There's a reason why the Aryan Nation set up shop in Idaho

Actually two reasons, it's out in the middle of nowhere, with a surrounding culture that accepted the basic premises of the Aryan Nation. Idaho is just as strange, twisted and racist as any Southern state, in fact it is populated by the descendants of Confederates who moved west looking for a new homeland.