The Positive Response to Hate
Gary Payton
How did you feel when you opened the latest hate mailing from the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger? Disgusted, angry, saddened once again? Likely, some of all of those emotions flowed over you. How then might we turn this latest negative attack into a positive opportunity?
As I write this article, I am pleased to tell you that in two weeks, almost $1,000 has been donated to support scholarships for next August's Youth Leadership Institute. The generous response of people from Post Falls to Boundary County began the day following the Guest Opinion in the Bonner County Daily Bee which outlined one way for community members to respond to the attack mailing.
Our approach was simple. We announced our Human Rights conference of August 5-11, 2001. We told people that if they were offended by the hate mailing, they might donate any sum to the Education Fund of the Task Force and all (that means 100% with no administrative overhead) of the donation would support youth next summer.
Perhaps the clincher was the notification that for each donation received, we would mail a simple post card to the 11th Hour informing them that a donation had been made in response to their mailing.
Thank you for your response. Thank you for saying no to racism by standing up for human dignity. And, thank you from the Bonner Country Human Rights Task Force for affirming this positive response to hate.
P.S. We will receive donations and send postcards until December 31, 2000. Just drop us a note and your contribution at: BCHRTF, 212 North Fourth, Suite 189, Sandpoint, ID 83864.
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A Holiday Gift for the Community
Barbara Veraniam
The Bob Ward Memorial Library Fund is pleased to announce that donation certificates are currently available. The fund has been set up to commemorate Bob's interest in human rights by contributing money to add additional books to the East Bonner County Library in the areas of human rights and diversity.
For a contribution of at least $10, people will receive an attractive certificate state that "This holiday season a generous donation has been made in your honor to the Bob Ward Memorial Library Fund for Human Rights Literature."
Consider including this community-enhancing option to your gift list.
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ML King Celebration
Deb McShane
To help celebrate Martin Luther King Day on January 15, the Sandpoint High School Coalition for Justice and Dignity will host the Second Annual Diversity Dinner and Celebration. The community is invited to attend the potluck dinner, which will take place in the high school commons area, and then take part in the celebration, which will be held in the auditorium.
The potluck will begin at 6:30 PM, and the club encourages those attending to bring multi-ethnic specialties.
The celebration is still in the planning stages, but the club hopes to work with the SHS choirs and drama students to present an evening of music and skits, along with short speeches.
Mark your calendars now and plan to attend this very special event in honor of Martin Luther King.
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Mark Your Calendars!
Brenda Hammond
The first inter-generational conference on human rights in Sandpoint, Idaho, is being planned for the summer of 2001 - August 8-11.
Young people and their families from the Northwest will have the opportunity to come together to experience workshops, activities, music and presentations designed to inspire and empower them to bring about positive change in their own communities. Events will foster an appreciation of diversity and an understanding of privileges.
The conference will be preceded by the Seventh Annual Youth Leadership Institute sponsored by the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity. This five-day event will also be held in Sandpoint - From August 5-9. It will provide selected youth an opportunity to discover their own leadership abilities and develop the tools necessary to create inclusive communities.
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Students Learn New Ways to Fight Hate
Jennessa Frengle
It's not every day that one sees teens standing up against racism, one of the most adult issues facing society today, but get enough of these teens together and they can have a voice louder and stronger than the biggest supremacist groups around.
This summer, five Sandpoint area students attended the Youth Leadership Summit, hosted by the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity, in Casper, Wyoming August 6-12. The conference's workshops were geared toward equality and human rights worldwide. In all, the conference consisted of thirty teenagers throughout seven western states. Among those from the Sandpoint area were juniors Steve Hammond and Matt Gil, seniors Jennessa Frengle and Kelly Akers, and junior Brittany Bergman from Lake Pend Oreille High School.
Sandpoint's Human Rights Task Force (BCHRTF) sponsored the students and provided the funding required for them to attend. Sponsorship was decided on the student's active roles in human rights movements in our town as well as in their schools.
While staying at the Wyoming lion's Club for the Blind, the students took part in seminars and discussions, and watched documentaries dealing with the issues of racism and oppression. The group came back with many new views and ideas on leadership through human rights. Equipped with pamphlets, magazines, booklets and bumper stickers, the group plans on passing their message throughout the community.
"The best part was finding people who think the same way that I do," Akers said. "Knowing there are other people out there who support me has given me the courage to speak out against hate."
More recently, the BCHRTF sponsored Hammond, Bergman, and Frengle on scholarship to attend the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity's Second Annual Youth Conference in Boise. The conference was held October 26-29. Adults and students alike joined in the informational workshops offered.
Among the many seminars available were, "Turn it down: The movement to stop White Power music," "Gender Bending," and "Civility Through Discussions and Debate."
"The workshops were really informative," Hammond said. "They gave a good platform to work from as far as making change in our community."
The BCHRTF plans on host a youth summit this summer, one similar to the one held in Wyoming. The summit will be held August 4-9 on Schweitzer Mountain. Included in the summit are plans for top notch workshops and challenge courses, as well as high-profiled guest speakers who are in the process of being reserved.
"Judging from my experience in Wyoming, I would encourage everybody to come this summer," Akers said.
The students have now formed a branch of the Anti Racist Action (ARA) organization here in Sandpoint. The students were informed of the organization through both the camp and the conferences, and took the initiative to contact its leaders and set up a base in our area.
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Membership Meeting Help a Moment to Remember
Hal H. Hargreaves
November's membership meeting was not remarkable on the surface: a lower-than-average attendance and the now common appearance of the Rev. Richard Butler et al and evangelist Vincent Bertollini. But as the evening unfolded, the five guest panelists gave palpable testimony to the progress of human rights in the Inland Northwest.
The Rev. Robert Hasseries of Coeur d'Alene, Vince Lemus of the Spokane Human Rights Commission, Paul Shively of Montana's Human Rights Network, Skip Kuck of the Social Justice League of Kootenai County and David Sawyer of Sandpoint gave listeners a close look at just how far human rights issues have come and how much there is yet to do.
During the question-answer portion of the program, a quite remarkable question was posed: "Why," a Butler associate wrote, "do you hate us?" Responses of the panelists were candid and direct. I paraphrase: "We struggle not to hate as we persist to defeat the evil of white supremacy and racial hatred." Had this been a question without the parties present, it might have been business as usual. The human rights panelists and their counterparts were a few feet apart. Although the opposition was quite but for the single question, the dialogue was real, intense, and thoughtful. It was a moment to remember.
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PFLAG News Notes
Barbara Hansen
Appreciation is extended to all who supported the recent PFLAG hosted slide show, "The Gay Life in Idaho." Your presence made a statement to the community that diversity is respected, and it encouraged the PFLAG Board in their efforts to achieve human rights for all persons.
A luncheon was enjoyed by the dozen workers who participated in the clean up of Pine Street in the County Adopt-A-Road Program. The next "clean-up" will be in the spring of 2001.
PFLAG Sandpoint came about from a need expressed by the community and through the generosity of volunteers, gays and straight. We have established a Help line at 263-6699 and maintain a post office box and have incurred numerous expenses necessary to function as a recognized source of support, education and advocacy.
We are now faced with the challenge of raising the dollars needed to establish next year's budget and various forms of fundraisers are being discussed. We need your help! Any suggestions you may offer regarding grants or fundraising ideas will be gratefully accepted. We would also value your membership to show support for our mission even if you prefer not to attend monthly meetings. Individual membership is $25, Family $35, Supporter $50, Flag Waver $100; however, no one is turned away from membership for financial reasons and donations of any amount are appreciated. PFLAG is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization. Gifts are tax-deductible.
We greatly appreciate the work of the BCHRTF and its support of PFLAG without which this chapter may not have had such a successful beginning. We look forward to working together to make our community more caring and compassionate.
Thank you.
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Hungarian Roma Leaders Visit Sandpoint to Learn
Gary Payton
On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, a group of Bonner County human rights leaders participated in a lunchtime conversation that changed forever our thinking about the work we do. Before, during, and after a meal, we took part in a wide-ranging conversation about the most effective methods employed by the Human Rights Task Force over the last decade to fight hate and tolerance.
What made this conversation so special, however, was the fact that we were engaged with three Hungarian Roma leaders and that the entire conversation was translated back and forth by a US State Department translator.
The Roma people, or "Gypsies" as they are more commonly know, represent the single most discriminated against ethnic group in Europe. Present in almost every country on the continent, the Roma are a highly visible minority in Hungary, the Ukraine, Russia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Germany and elsewhere.
Each of our guests worked as the Director of the Roma Community Center in his community in central or eastern Hungary. Each was all too familiar with the impact of racism, economic hardship, and legal and social discrimination.
These Roma leaders visited Sandpoint to hear about our efforts to stand for human dignity and to oppose racism. Mayor Paul Graves, members of the Task Force Board and members of the Task Force participated in a three-hour exchange highlighting such topics as education, coalition-building, accompaniment of victims, etc. As our time together drew to a close, one of the Roma leaders told us through the translator that their visit had been the most productive and important of any stop along their multicity tour.
I, for one, learned a valuable lesson from the day. While we live in North Idaho, while winter nights are now long and we sometimes feel isolated, the impact of our work together not only makes a difference in our community, but makes a difference in a place as far away as Hungary. The struggle for human dignity knows no geographic boundaries. When we share our successes, our challenges, and our hopes we are all drawn more tightly together as part of the human family.
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A Plea for Clemency
Marian Breckenridge
Twenty-four years ago last February, a Native American man named Leonard Peltier was arrested in Alberta, Canada for th4e murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in South Dakota. Soon afterward, he was extradited to the United States, with the use of falsified affidavits, setting the scene for what would become one of the most controversial and well-known trials of the 20th century.
The sole eye-witness has since recanted her testimony; the FBI legal counsel established on record in 1989 that they cannot prove who actually killed the agents; there is some evidence that Peltier might not even have been on the reservation at the time of the "shoot-out;" and even the judge who dismissed Peltier's appeal on a technicality is now advocating for Mr. Peltier's release through a presidential grant of executive clemency.
Many members of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force are joining our voices to that of the Dalai Lama, Amnesty International and numerous human rights organization in requesting executive clemency for Leonard Peltier. Apart from the controversial question of his guilt or innocence, Mr. Peltier (now 55 years old and ill) has "done his time" and spent the last 24 years of prison life carrying our enormously important humanitarian projects.
If you would like to sign or circulate a petition to the President of the United States requesting this pardon of Mr. Peltier, please call Marian Breckenridge at 265-4155 to request one. Any you may call the White House comment line any day at 202-456-1111. This is urgent because it is Leonard Peltier's last opportunity for freedom.
You may also write to the President about this at:
President Bill Clinton
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please, no e-mails, as it takes them weeks to wade through them all. A call is best. Thank you.
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