Fighting Hate in North Idaho Human rights activists to turn small racist parade into media circus, fundraiser by Don Harkins COEUR d’ ALENE--Aryan Nations Leader Richard Butler has announced plans to seek a permit to hold a parade in honor of Adolf Hitler’s birthday and Wassmuthians plan to use the parade to fill its hate fighting coffers through pledges. Hoping to avoid the likelihood that, without their promotional efforts, the parade would be an insignificant event that would come and go without many people being affected or inconvenienced, human rights activists are going to make sure that the event is blown to the widest possible proportion. It is in the best interest of those who fight hate for a living that as many people as possible from all over the world do not forget to associate north Idaho with racism. Sensing that the Hitler day celebration will be the revenue generating event of the spring season, Wassmuthians are promoting the event from coast to coast in order to solicit pledges to help fight the hate that they are promoting. Previous hate promotions have been so effective that people in Australia who have never been to north Idaho think that all north Idahoans are racists and, as a result, Wassmuthians have been able to raise millions of dollars to fight racism. According to an article in the Spokesman Review which seemed to approve of the concept that promoting racism for the purpose of generating money to fight racism makes sense, similar parade pledge promotions to raise money to fight hate have been used by human rights activists in Pennsylvania. The same Spokesman Review article quoted long time human rights activist Jewish Defense League member Irv Rubin as saying, "There are times for love and times for hate," and added that, "I think it’s a shame people up here can’t show hate to the Aryans." What activists like Rubin probably know but will not admit to publicly is that the reason we can afford not to show hate for the Aryan Nations is because, if it weren’t for activists like himself and the Wassmuthians, we could all forget that they even live here. Rubin is organizing a protest march for the same day and can be counted on to engage in animated activities that will increase media interest in the event and therefore increase the revenue potential for Wassmuthians. Butler is hoping that at least 100 Aryans will participate in the parade. Considering that it is commonly understood that at least 30 percent of attendees at the typical Aryan function are federal agents, human rights activists will have to work well together and collectivize their marketing skills to maximize world concern that hate is alive and well in north Idaho. They have their work cut out for them because it will take some real promotional expertise to convince the world that north Idaho is the hate capital of the universe when only 70 people in the entire area who are not federal agents are hateful enough to celebrate Hitler’s birthday in public. Think about this: Hitler’s political philosophy was national socialism. A quick surf of the NWC website and a following of its links indicates that it espouses a political philosophy of international socialism. Hitler used hate to his political advantage. What are the Wassmuthians doing? Human Rights Leader Lives Comfortably Fighting Hate The office of Idaho Governor Phil Batt stated that, as far as they knew, Human Rights Task Force Director Bill Wassmuth’s sole source of income is based upon his activities as a leader of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment (NWC). NWC is the umbrella organization for dozens of human rights groups in the area. Human rights groups must depend upon public and private donations for the administration and implementation of its human rights-oriented programs and activities. For government agencies, with which the NWC seems to be closely linked, approximately 80 percent of the budget goes toward administrating the problem it is charged with solving and 20 percent of the budget is dedicated to actually solving the "problem." Fortunately for Wassmuth and the Wassmuthians, events such as the Aryan Nations’ parade which is scheduled to take place in Coeur d’ Alene are a boon to their industry. The parade is an event that can be exploited for pledges, it can be talked about and promoted to increase the revenue potential the parade represents and, with the press all abuzz over the silly little parade, the Wassmuthians can continue to make a comfortable living convincing everybody that north Idaho’s brand of hate is better than anybody else’s brand of hate. Idahoans: Are you beginning to get a little tired of the world viewing you as racists because groups of people who call themselves human rights activists keep getting away with being quoted in the newspaper as telling everybody that you are racists? Well, what should we do about that? © 1998 The Idaho Observer