Spring 2013 - 20th Anniversary

Spring 2013
The Bonner County Human Rights Task Force has received a surprise donation of $370,000 from the estate
of Dorothy Adler. The money will be used to create a
permanent endowment fund that will guarantee that
the work of the TF can go on longer than any of its
founders. It will make it possible to offer funds each
year to non-profit organizations and schools in the
community to fund human rights activities.
It is remarkable that this gift comes as the Task Force
is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The Task Force was
incorporated in November 1992, after friends and human rights advocates from next-door Kootenai County: Father Bill Wassmuth, Marshall Mend and Tony
Stewart spoke to a packed Sandpoint gym about their
experiences dealing with the Aryan Nations and other
Neo-Nazi and Christian Identity groups there. They
warned about the dangers of being silent and stressed
the importance of standing up to such influences.
Indeed, for the first 10 years of its existence, the
focus of the BCHRTF was very much on sending the
message that hate was not welcome in Bonner County.
We proclaimed that clearly to Richard Butler—who attended most of our public meetings. We proclaimed
that to Louis Beam, former grand dragon of the KKK
who had planned to settle on the shores of Lake Pend
Oreille.
We proclaimed that as well to the “11th Hour Remnant Messenger,” or Vincent Bertolini, who littered our
area with hate mailings that contained videos of Richard Butler, and six foot long glossy charts “proving”
from Biblical references the supremacy of the white
race.
When the last of these public figures left our area the
second decade for the Task Force was much quieter.
We offered annual human rights scholarships,
helped fund peer mediation and conflict resolution in
the schools, and collaborated with the Arts community to offer a series of “Art for Human Rights” exhibits
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with work from Bonner County students based on the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But without a
visible foe, the Task Force began to fade into the background.
Then, in 2012, we had a former follower of Richard Butler and self-proclaimed member of the KKK
announce his intention to run for sheriff of Bonner
County. Shaun Winkler lost in the primary election,
but his intention to build a compound here, highlighted by a cross-burning that showed up on the front page
of the local paper, got everyone’s attention. It was proof
of what the BCHRTF members had known all along:
that our work was far from finished.
It was in the fall of 2012 that we received word that
we were to receive this generous donation. This will
create many new opportunities for the third decade of
the Task Force to truly expand the scope of its influence by providing the impetus and the means for more
groups in the community to oppose discrimination,
support human dignity, and promote tolerance and
understanding. It will bring us closer to our goal of
creating a community where everyone is not only safe,
but honored and respected.
—Brenda Hammond
For information about becoming a member or if you
would like to make a donation, please send us an
e-mail at [email protected] or write to us at :
Bonner County Human Rights Task Force
PO Box 1463
Sandpoint, ID 83864
Buzz Arndt
(interviewed by Brenda Hammond)
Buzz Arndt was the first President of the Bonner County Human
Rights Task Force. In those formative times, taking the responsibility of being the visible head of a human rights group, was
considered a risky and possibly dangerous thing to do. After all,
Father Bill Wassmuth, a good friend of the Arndts, had a bomb
exploded in the rectory where he was living as pastor of the Saint
Pius Parish in Coeur d’Alene. So when the first Board was electing
officers, Buzz and his wife Kate said they would be willing to fill
those visible roles within the group. Their reasoning was that they
had lived full lives and their children were grown, which made
them more logical candidates than others who were younger and
still raising families.
One memory that is very clear for Buzz to this day is of standing up on the stage at the old Sandpoint High School and looking down at the audience where he saw Richard Butler, the Aryan
Nations leader, and his followers, wearing swastika armbands and
sitting right next to his wife Kate.
Buzz also remembers when his office was used to organize a
campaign against Proposition One—an anti-gay initiative that
sought to legalize discrimination in housing and employment
against anyone perceived to be gay or lesbian. The Task Force
worked diligently, taking information about the proposition,
(which was given the misleading title of the “The Family Protection” Initiative), door to door all over Sandpoint. He still feels
gratified that the Initiative was defeated in Bonner County and
subsequently in the state.
Buzz was very moved as he watched the second Inauguration of
President Obama this January. He found especially inspiring the
words of Myrlie Evers Williams, wife of the slain civil rights leader,
who gave the Invocation. She ended with these thoughts:
“There’s something within me that holds the reins. There’s
something within me that banishes pain. There’s something within
me I cannot explain. But all I know America, there is something
within. There is something within.”
Talking about this “something within” us that does not tolerate
hatred or injustice—Buzz spoke of the need to be humble and
never become proud for having been given understanding that
others ike Richard Butler, for example may not have had.
On the wall of Buzz’s room is a Certificate of Appreciation from
the Southern Poverty Law Center, “In recognition of your important contribution to the ongoing fight against hatred and intolerance in America.” It goes on to state: “The name shown above will
be added to the Wall of Tolerance in Montgomery, Alabama and
provide inspiration to all those who choose to take a stand against
hatred. Thank you for taking a stand.” It was signed by Morris
Dees.
Buzz and Kate were a great inspiration to all who gathered together to form a human rights task force in Bonner County and
their vision and spirit continue to inspire us today.
The Rev. Mary Robinson-Mohr
Several clergy and church leaders had talked for a few years before
the organization of the BCHRTF about doing something to build
up a pro-diversity presence in our area, and a few things were
done through the Sandpoint Christian Connection. Linda Yerby
had put together an Orange Ribbon Campaign to coincide with
the weekend that our Aryan neighbors celebrated Hitler’s April
birthday. It was not until the Ruby Ridge shootings, however, that
Buzz and Kate Arndt, myself, and about a dozen other wonderful
community leaders were galvanized by our grief and shock into
more organized action. I recall several of the “rules of thumb” that
we developed as we organized ourselves. We did not want to respond to a doctrine of hatred with hate, or mirror angry and demeaning action in kind.
We worked to develop a “third way,” one that would respond
to violence and harassment with reason and education and supportive empowerment of victims. We wanted to create an ethos
within our community of respect and tolerance, and so we held
film festivals and educational opportunities, including the “Teaching Tolerance” materials from the Southern Poverty Law Center
(thank you, Kate Arndt). Some of our members wanted to engage
in direct dialogue with members of the white supremacist and
Christian Identity Movement communities in our region. They
quickly found that such efforts were not as productive as hoped,
and so our next “rule of thumb” was, “Let’s keep the rational people rational.”
We found we could be most effective by working with community leaders and groups to discern the difference between freedom
of speech issues and legal harassment or threat, thus keeping our
community clear and focused on behaviors that crossed the line
into racism and hatred. It was a formative time, and one which I
will never forget.
Gary Payton
One of the many dramatic periods in the
life of the Bonner County Human Rights
Task Force, the years 2000 to 2004 witnessed major events regionally and locally.
With the aid of the Southern Poverty Law
Center, Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations was
dealt a crippling blow in 2000.
A $6.3 million civil judgement against
Butler led to the closure/sale of his infamous compound in Hayden. Then, when
Butler announced his neo-Nazi followers would parade in downtown Sandpoint
in April 2001, our community responded
magnificently. “Celebrate Sandpoint” was a
positive counter event staged at the Bonner
County Fair Grounds with an outpouring
of political, business, and private support.
A highlight was the gifting of the Tolerance sculpture to the county for years long
display on the Court House grounds. Meanwhile, Sandpoint’s own white supremacist
and anti-Semite, Vincent Bertollini continued to leaflet our community with mailings
from his 11th Hour Remnant Messenger.
When Bertollini attached community leaders, the Task Force organized a campaign
to receive donations to give scholarships
to students for a human rights conference.
With each donation, we sent Bertollini a
“thank you” post card saying his mailings
had produced a response to further human
rights education.
What was the most significant lesson
for me during my four years as Task Force
president? Bigotry and hated must be responded to with deliberate, well reasoned,
strategic action. Silence is the shadow land
in which hate can fester and grow. We live
in a place which celebrates personal liberty,
but citizens have shown time and time again
that “Idaho is too great to hate.” When we
give voice to our beliefs, when we parade
each July 4th, we underscore a key part of
our Task Force creed, “we believe in the inviolable dignity of each human being.”
nesses, and community leaders asking what
they could do in response.
The Task Force board decided to focus
on answering and providing guidance to
the last question. Ranging from letters to
the editors from not just the Task Force
but community members, to holding community forums about what to do with
unwanted hate mail (including weaving the
material into doormats and making peace
candle holders), to organizing community
celebrations of diversity, to making sure
that citizens knew the tenets of the Christian Identity movement and Richard Butler’s philosophy, and generally offering constructive ways of responding to their ideas
the Task Force opted to counteract not only
the damage these ideas were doing to our
community locally but also attempted to
provide a counterpoint to the negative image our community was receiving nationally.
We were not reticent to refute the validity of these bigoted groups but we refused
to give these groups any credence by partic-
ipating in any of their functions. To argue
with them in a public forum would imply
that they had merely different views rather
than unacceptable views.
This has been the approach of the Task
Force ever since—make sure the community knew what their views entailed, provide a
positive community response that showed
that their views were not part of our community’s culture, and to make sure others
realized that our community celebrated
diversity and rejected bias and bigotry.
It is not true that we focus on racism
alone, but we attempt to use the same
techniques we used to deal with white supremacists to handle other areas of potential discrimination such as sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or any other bigoted
stereotype that denies any citizen the right
to contribute his/her talents to making our
community a better place to live. Just because the white supremacist groups have
diminished does not mean that we do not
have additional work to do.
Gretchen Hellar
During my term as president, the Task
Force was right in the midst of the era of
Butler and Bertolini as well as dealing with
an individual who was distributing Holocaust denial comic books across the street
from the middle school.
All the Task Force members, recognizing the First Amendment rights of even
those with whom we disagree and whose
views we find in conflict with the rights and
dignity of all citizens, had to decide how to
handle a very disagreeable, potentially explosive, situation.
These ignorant and hateful views, espoused by the aforementioned individuals and their groups, were given national
media attention. As a consequence, North
Idaho was acquiring a very negative image
as a region “swarming” with white supremacists and Neo-Nazis.
The Task Force actually received calls
from individuals from other areas who
were concerned for their safety if they
chose to visit our area. On the other hand,
we received calls from local citizens, busi-
Hal Hargreaves
Following the defeat of Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations encampment in Hayden Lake and
Vincent Bertolini’s escape to other climes, the
BCHRTF was challenged to adjust its techniques
in combating racism. It meant we would emphasize longer-term projects while remaining ready
to march if the situation favored it.
Two projects were chosen for concentrated
work: a course in appreciation of Kalispel traditions to be incorporated into LPOSD curriculum, and also in cooperation with LPOSD a program for conflict resolution. The former would
languish while the other would catch fire.
We learned a good lesson; that is long-term
projects depend on energy from the community
being addressed. Kalispel tribal members were
primarily responders, not initiators, in the effort
to bring awareness of their long history to the
classrooms of Bonner County. The project died
because of this oversight.
Interest in conflict resolution was already on
the minds of the local school staff, so the Task
Force played the role of facilitator in developing a program that recognized student/faculty
initiative from the beginning, taking root in the
schools. It was a taste of success.
Laura Bry
I came to the Task Force at the end of
2008 after working as an Obama campaign volunteer in Sandpoint. I was
upset by the local expressions of hate
against Obama, both verbal and visual,
when one of the board members invited
me to a meeting.
I wanted to channel my energy into
a positive direction and I was so impressed by the “working board” concept and how well the Task Force was
presenting human rights and the idea of
non-discrimination to the community.
I was voted onto the board and served
as President from 2009-2011.
I was honored to participate with our
board in fundraising for the SHS Model
UN class and underwriting the cost
of books for high school students. We
continued annual and ongoing projects
and events: Human Rights Day, the Human Rights Scholarship, Art of Human
Rights, and World Harmony Run.
We began providing dinner for
the Circles group a couple of times a
year and hosted Contagious Love Experiment, two Iraq war veterans who
turned from being soldiers into peacemakers. In early 2011, Pride Foundation came to Sandpoint to reach out to
the BCHRTF and FHRAA on LGBTQ
issues and begin an alliance that continues today.
Christine Holbert
My stint as president of the Bonner County
Human Rights Task Force was characterized by change, some of which is now evident in our community, and some, regrettably, that didn’t happen. Here’s an excerpt of
a newsletter article I wrote at the time that
highlights some of the changes we’ve been
through:
Sandpoint has been experiencing plenty of
changes recently, including rapid population
growth, a housing boom, the forthcoming
University of Idaho Sandpoint campus development and the downtown bypass project; in short, we are witnessing the transformation of our little city from a sleepy north
Idaho lumber/mining/agricultural town into
a fashionable vacation and retirement hot
spot. Some changes are welcome, others seem
only to inflame citizens. Either way—whether we consider change to be an improvement
or a step backward—we all realize that life is
not static. We can become advocates for reform, opposing changes that are not in our
best interests, or we can hibernate. Or as Bob
Dylan put it so well: “Your old road is / Rapidly agin’ / Please get out of the new one / If
you can’t lend your hand / For the times, they
are a-changin’”
My mission was to encourage networking between Bonner County nonprofits
and service groups so that they could acquire supplementary resources, motivation,
people, and funding for their community
projects. When nonprofits work together to
solve community issues, I continue to believe that grantors look more favorably on
those collaborative efforts and reward them
accordingly. I hoped to advance the idea of
community development as asset-based,
and by necessity, internally focused. That
is, development strategy should concentrate upon the agenda building and problem solving capacities of local residents,
local associations, and local institutions.
This self-conscious internal focus was not
intended to minimize either the role exter-
nal forces have played in helping to create
desperate conditions, nor the need to attract additional resources to these communities. Rather, this strong internal focus was
intended to stress the dominance of local
definition, investment, creativity, hope and
control. If a community development process is asset-based and internally focused,
then it will be relationship driven. Thus,
one of the central challenges for the Task
Force was to build and rebuild the relationships between and among local residents,
local associations and local institutions.
Here’s what we accomplished:
• The Task Force designed a streamlined
grant application and evaluation form for
nonprofits to complete when soliciting
funding for projects.
• The Task Force supported the Circles Initiative, a strategy to engage the community
in directly working to help people out of
poverty by providing meals for their weekly
meetings, along with volunteers to cook,
serve and clean up.
• The Task Force co-hosted a stunning portrayal of the lives of prison camp inmates
in WW II Germany entitled, POETRY IN
BUCHENWALD, at the Panida Theater
in collaboration with The Foundation for
Human Rights Action and Advocacy, Lost
Horse Press and The Arts Alliance.
• The Task Force partnered with the Sandpoint Arts Commission to build a Community Bulletin Board at Farmin Park as a gift
to the community.
• The Task Force supported the establishment of Sandpoint Community Radio.
• In 2010, Lost Horse Press published an
anthology of human rights-themed poems
entitled I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human
Rights edited by Melissa Kwasny and M.L.
Smoker. The Task Force, FHRAA and Lost
Horse Press co-sponsored a public reading
/ open mic for the community.
• A collaboration that I passionately encouraged, the most fulfilling for me, was
between the Task Force and two nonprofit arts organizations—Pend Oreille Arts
Council and Lost Horse Press—a project
entitled “The Art of Human Rights.” It was
the first human rights-themed arts exhibition for Bonner County students in grades
7 through 12. The goal of the exhibit was
to broaden knowledge about human rights
through aesthetic and emotional channels
using art and literature.
• Also during my tenure, the Task Force created an Advisory Board to include members
who have a specific skill or contribution to
offer with respect to human rights, but who
are unable to attend monthly meetings.
• Mamaloose Music, Lost Horse Press, and
the Task Force worked together to produce
a contest to give away 20 tickets to the soldout Joan Baez concert at the Panida Theater
on 22 March 2009. To win a ticket, entrants
had to compose an essay, poem or song describing how they had been influenced by
the civil or human rights ideology of Joan
Baez..
• The Task Force collaborated with Sandpoint Parks & Rec to welcome the World
Harmony Run (formerly known as the
Peace Run) to City Beach. The World Harmony Run was inspired in 1987 by the late
visionary Sri Chinmoy as a way of giving
citizens a dynamic way to express their own
hopes and dreams for a more harmonious
and peaceful world.
• The Task Force collaborated with NAMI
Far North—whose mission is to provide
support to the mentally ill and their families, and to provide education about menContinued on next page
Christine Holbert, continued
tal illnesses—to implement the Crisis Intervention Training
program for law enforcement and to arrange for a speaker to
visit Sandpoint: Pete Earley, Washington Post journalist and
Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of CRAZY: A Father’s Search
Through America’s Mental Health Madness, who delivered a
lecture at the Panida theater. The Task Force continues its support of NAMI Far North in its efforts to alleviate misconceptions about the mentally ill as well as protect their civil and
human rights.
• The Task Force pledged to help Sandpoint High School’s
Model United Nations Class raise the $30,000 needed to travel
to New York City to attend the Model UN Conference by hosting a gourmet dinner featuring Ethiopian/Djibouti delicacies.
• With the generous help of FHRAA, the Task Force contributed to the Rachel’s Challenge anti-bullying program at Sandpoint High School.
• The Task Force developed a procedure for citizens to report
cases of overzealousness or misbehavior by local police or
other governmental agencies. A form that a complainant must
complete and sign now exists so that people who believe they
have been unjustly treated or discriminated against, may seek
the Task Force’s assistance. The Task Force may set up meetings
between citizens and the police or other agencies to resolve issues of alleged misconduct.
I now realize that the aspect of the Task Force that I respect
most is that it continues to be a flexible and tolerant organization that genuinely strives to improve the lives of Bonner
County citizens by its involvement with diverse and wideranging community projects. I was sincerely honored over the
years to serve as secretary, vice president and president of the
Bonner County Human Rights Task Force . I remain dedicated
to promoting the ideals and principles of this essential community organization both in my private life as well as in my
professional life as publisher and editor.
On January 17, 2013, the Art for Human Rights Exhibit opened
at the Redtail Gallery on Oak and 6th in Sandpoint. On display
was artwork with human rights themes by high school and middle
school students. We especially want to thank the teachers who
helped make this happen: Linda Navarre, Heather Guthrie, and
Zabrielle Dillon.
I was very moved by the thoughts expressed, and truly amazed
by the artistic quality of many of the works of art. I was inspired
also to meet some of the young artists and left feeling optimistic
about a future that such hands will shape.
—Brenda Hammond
I am very excited to announce that, once again, students will have
the opportunity to express their support for human rights by means
of a club at Sandpoint High School. The goal of this club is to inspire
equality in the Sandpoint High School student body.
One of the school’s arts teachers, Zabrielle Dillon, has kindly
agreed to be our staff sponsor. We believe that focusing on the positive as opposed to the negative will have a much more desirable impact on our community.
The Bonner County Youth Human Rights Task Force will meet
weekly to discuss actions the club should take to achieve this goal.
Getting the human rights club started has been a lot of work; however, it is work that has definitely paid off.
Seeing the amount of people that are interested in this club was
absolutely inspiring. As the president of the human rights club, I am
very excited to represent the members as we strive to better equality
in our local youth community, Sandpoint High School.
—Erik R. Bruhjell
The work of advancing human rights in the Northwest has gained
support through the founding of The Northwest Coalition for
Human Rights (NWCHR). This new organization began formally
in October of 2012, inspired by the former Northwest Coalition
Against Malicious Harassment which was founded by Bill Wassmuth. That organization was dissolved in 2003 and since that
time there has been no formal way for the various grass-roots human rights groups in the region to communicate, associate and
support each other’s efforts.
The mission of the Northwest Coalition for Human Rights
(NWCHR) is to facilitate communication and collaboration
among groups and individuals addressing human rights to promote human dignity, inclusion, and equal justice. It will give
strength to those working at the local level by allowing them to
share resources, information, and ideas, as well as making them
part of a larger support system.
At the East Bonner County Library District, you should check
out the wonderful books on human rights in the Bob Ward
Memorial Collection. The collection was founded by the BCHRTF
in 2000 to honor Bob Ward, a retired professor of African-American history and life-long human rights activist. Over the past 13
years the collection has grown to nearly 120 books, DVDs and
CDs for children to adults, covering human rights, peace, nonviolent change, women’s and African-American rights, LGBT
issues and equality. While we celebrate Black History month in
February, it reminds us to learn more about American heroes
like W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass, historian John Hope
Franklin, and writer Zora Neale Hurston. Here are two books I
found that expanded my knowledge of Black History and one that
presents human rights values to young children.
One of the recently added books is African American faces of
the Civil War: an album (2012), by Ronald Coddington. This is a
beautiful book full of photos and the stories of Afircan-American
civil war participants. This is Coddington’s third book of photographs of Civil War Soldiers, and as I looked at these images I was
struck by the fact that the soldiers look so alike because of their
uniforms and poses.
NWCHR members include students, educators, human rights
workers and activists, community leaders and members, members
of faith and interfaith communities, law enforcement and government officials, non-profit groups, educational institutions, service
providers, and other such organizations.
The University of Idaho Office of Human Rights, Access, and
Inclusion (HRAI) serves as the administrative home for the Coalition and is an ex officio member of the Coalition. The Coalition
strives to build strong membership from throughout Idaho and
western Washington, as well as from other parts of the Northwest
region. For more information and to download a membership application go to the Coalition website: www.nwchr.wordpress.com
—Brenda Hammond
For sports fans there are books about Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson. You may want to read Sharon Robinson’s Promises to
keep: how Jackie Robinson changed America in conjunction with
the feature film “42” released in April. Jackie Robinson was the
first African-American major league baseball player and “broke
the color barrier” when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
Both Robinson and Ali are seen as sports heroes, but we should
always remember they contributed significantly to the Civil Rights
movement as well.
Another of the books is Jack & Jim by Kitty Crowther and is a
picture book for children ages 4-8. The tale is about Jack the blackbird who meets Jim the seagull and what happens when Jim takes
Jack to meet the village of seagulls. The concepts of friendship,
respect, diversity and acceptance are presented in this story with
ink and watercolor illustrations.
It is easy to find the books in the collection in the online catalog: just type Bob Ward in the search box and you’ll find the books
so kindly donated to our community in Bob’s name. Or you can
go to our website for links directly to these books and extra information.
—Laura Bry
The human rights issues that we experience on a daily basis are vast
quantity: religious discrimination, religious hatred, religious misin
understanding. As a student at Sandpoint High School, the biggest
problem I see with current high school students is their inability to
have empathy for others. This may not appear to be a major problem relating to discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation,
however, it becomes a hindrance to a healthy and functioning society
when we speak of religious freedom and religious discrimination.
It is my belief young children should be exposed to as many religious views as possible, as early as is appropriate. The FBI reported
an increase of Muslim-directed hate crimes of seven times in 2001,
shortly after the 9-11 terrorist attack. Being taught the beliefs of others allows teens to see the points of view of other people and to feel
compassion for them.
What we are currently experiencing is a world where young people have not been educated properly about differing religious doctrine. According to dosomething.org statistics, “48% of Americans
say they “seldom” or “never” read books (other than Scripture) or
visit websites about their own religion. 70% say they seldom or never
read books or visit websites about other religions.” A study by ing.
com claims that 33% of school aged kids admit to being bullied based
on religion or their family’s income.
No one is asking these people to agree with a religion, or a religious statement, but merely to be able to understand where a fellow
human being is coming from.
Perspective is what this all boils down to. It is both the problem
and the solution to the issue in question. People lose perspective over
the years. They lose the ability to walk in another person’s shoes, so
to speak. They become so focused on what they believe to be right,
that they lose sight of the hope for equality. Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn once said “It’s an universal law--intolerance is the first sign of an
inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant
impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.”
What must be remembered is that this country is based on religious freedom (among other things) for a reason. That reason being
that our forefathers experienced first hand the horrors of religious
intolerance. In my opinion a vast amount of people are stuck in a
continual rut of being unable to step back and evaluate a situation
from a different perspective. I encourage people to get out, experience new cultures and new customs. Do research about other beliefs
and keep an open mind about what is learned. Remember to not discard others opinions just because you disagree with them. If a person
believes something to be valid, that should be more than enough for
another person to respect it. It is only through exposure to different
religions and beliefs that our society will become more tolerant. To
be educated is an incredibly powerful tool.