When hate literature strikes, here's how you can fight back

COEUR d’ALENE — This story begins with a soapdish.

In reality, it began long before the soap dish, or before a stranger pinned a note beneath the soapdish, or before the store that sold the soap dish ever opened. God only knows when it all really started.

But local organizers hope a new campaign eventually will end the story once and for all.

“Imagine a patron coming into one of our local stores, looking to buy a purse or a coat,” said Shawn Keenan, surrounded by activists in a Coeur d’Alene living room. “They’re a tourist, and they’re shopping with us, and they buy from us and then go home. When they open up that purse they bought, they pull out this piece of paper inside with a bunch of hateful, racist remarks and links to white supremacist websites. What are they supposed to think about us?”

That was not a hypothetical situation: Racist literature and leaflets hidden amid merchandise throughout Coeur d’Alene have been discovered off and on for years, local merchants said. The most recent episode occurred two weeks ago at Mountain Madness Soap Co. on Sherman Avenue. Near the back of the store, on a glass shelf beneath a hand-carved soap dish, was a flier waiting to be unfolded.

“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,” it read, in all caps.

That is known as the “14 words,” a catchphrase and rallying cry for white supremacists. The leaflet also gave a three-sentence theory of religion’s and government’s involvement in white genocide.

“In short,” it reads, “Judeo-Christianity was formed to first conquer, then use the White race. America was formed to first use, then exterminate the White race. What was planned is nearly completed.”

The flier then lists a pair of websites celebrating the life of David Eden Lane. Lane, widely believed to have coined the “14 Words,” was a white supremacist who once served as Colorado state organizer of the Ku Klux Klan.

Lane later became one of the original members of The Order, a terrorist organization founded in Metaline, Wash., in the early 1980s. Its focus was on creating a white homeland in the Pacific Northwest and dismantling what they described as a Zionist government occupation.

The Order raised more than $4 million, mostly by hijacking armored cars. Lane was convicted in federal court on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and violating the civil rights of Alan Berg by serving as the getaway driver for other members of The Order who assassinated the Denver-based Jewish radio talk show host in 1984. Lane was sentenced to 190 years before dying in federal prison in 2007.

Attempts by The Press to reach the website’s administrators were unsuccessful.

Love Lives Here

The soap dish flier is one of a handful of permutations of the same message, web address and imagery distributed periodically through Coeur d’Alene’s downtown area, slipped into mailboxes near the eastern slope of Tubbs Hill and pinned to car windshields on public parking lots. For some local activists, the Oct. 10 incident at Mountain Madness was the last straw.

“This is the time to launch,” political organizer Laura Tenneson of Coeur d’Alene said, standing in the same living room that now doubles as an activism headquarters. She was joined by fellow Coeur d’Alene advocates Keenan, Ali Orjala and Suzanne Marshall. “This is the time to fight yet another instance of hate trying to get back into the spotlight in our community. To me, there’s no better time to start Love Lives Here than right now.”

Love Lives Here — or, officially, Love Lives Here CDA — is a grassroots campaign trying to combat what its founders call a resurrection of the same rhetoric that invited the Aryan Nations to North Idaho in the 1970s. Serving under the blanket of Coeur d’Alene’s Human Rights Education Institute and in conjunction with the North Idaho Pride Alliance and the Portland-based Western States Center, Love Lives Here intends to generate a more organized response to future events like the Oct. 10 incident. Keenan said the role of the campaign was to persuade businesses, government entities and residents to publicly stand up to bigotry and intolerance. Love Lives Here officially launched Oct. 18.

“Ideally, my hope is that Love Lives Here forms a big alliance between the businesses and people of Coeur d’Alene — and beyond — to stand up to this kind of hatred and bullying,” Marshall said.

Businesses back effort

Terry Cooper, manager of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association, said the business community supported its members, and that an innocent patron who might see racist literature in one of the stores or in a piece of merchandise would only think the worst of the area.

“We’re against all forms of racism,” he said. “We’re totally against it. We’ve seen this taking place on occasion in the past, and we recognized right away that it’s important we make hate groups aware they’re not wanted in Coeur d’Alene, and it’s important we continue to support our business owners and staff, and their hard work to make our town a quality environment.”

Those businesses include Jill Bolton, owner of Bolton Law in Coeur d’Alene. She said she signed on to Love Lives Here without hesitation.

“I’m a lawyer,” she said. “I’m sworn to uphold the Constitution. I believe in equality in the law and diversity in our community. As someone who supports the message Love Lives Here looks to spread — a positive message of ending hate and bigotry — I was thrilled to sign on.”

The campaign asks businesses, organizations and individuals to pledge their commitment to upholding and protecting the civil and human rights of all individuals regardless of their race, creed, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or immigration status. Those who sign will receive a Love Lives Here CDA window sticker for their storefront, organization headquarters or personal home to demonstrate their allegiance.

“We love our community,” Keenan said. “We want to take a stand against this. We’ve been fighting so long against our previous and, frankly, deserved reputation. A lot of people do a lot of good in this town, and it gets drowned out by these organized efforts to promote bigotry and racism and hate.”

Keenan takes it personally, he said, because of his personal history with bigotry in North Idaho. His aunt and cousin, Victoria and Jason Keenan, were shot at, beaten and held at gunpoint by Aryan Nations security guards in 1998, leading to a $6.3 million judgment against the white supremacists and their ultimate decline into bankruptcy.

‘If you’re not sure, call us’

To try to prevent that scale of organized bigotry from returning, Love Lives Here is supplying the window stickers and what they describe as informational “toolkits.” The toolkits, courtesy of Western States Center, offer strategies and practices to combat white nationalism, white supremacy and bigotry, as well as a five-step response guide.

Capt. Dave Hagar of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department agreed that reporting incidents like the Oct. 10 discovery at Mountain Madness was the right thing to do, even if it’s unclear whether a piece of racist literature is a crime.

“Even if you’re not sure, call us,” Hagar said. “It’s our job to come and make sure everybody’s safe, evaluate the situation and go from there. [If you see] anything out of the ordinary like [the Oct. 10 incident], we have a non-emergency number you can call. We’ll respond to it and go from there.”

The non-emergency number for the Coeur d’Alene Police Department is 208-446-1854.

The non-emergency number for the Post Falls Police Department is 208-773-3517.

The non-emergency number for the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office is 208-446-1300, option 1.

Hagar said that, of course, people should call 911 if they feel their safety or that of others is in danger. Wes Somerton, an attorney with the Coeur d’Alene Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, agreed. He wouldn’t speculate on hypothetical cases similar to the Oct. 10 incident, or say whether the incident was a crime, but he seconds Hagar’s urgings to call the police.

“We can only evaluate and decide the appropriate course of action if a case gets to our desks,” Somerton said. “We can’t prosecute anything if the public doesn’t notify the police or appropriate authorities.”

Tenneson said calling the authorities is an important step in forming a resistance to the messages that harken back to Coeur d’Alene’s complicated history with hate groups.

“The first step is to expose the problem,” she said. “These people are spreading hatred in our community, and we have an obligation to stand up to it.”

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Bolton reiterated from behind the desk at her Coeur d’Alene practice, paraphrasing Justice Louis Brandeis. “It’s important we expose all forms of hatred to the light of day.”

The light of day and, perhaps, a little soap.