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AP ARTICLE: Should have been a My Turn

| June 22, 2022 1:00 AM

After reading the various articles printed in the Coeur d’Alene Press during the last week regarding the activities in McEuen/City Park on June 11, one caused me some concern. On Tuesday, June 14, Rebecca Boone of the Associated Press — Boise wrote an article entitled “Right-wing extremists amp up anti-LGBTQ rhetoric online.”

In the third-to-the-last paragraph, she states that “Northern Idaho has long been associated with extremist groups, most predominantly the Aryan Nations…” The inference is that there are others not so predominant.

Then in the last paragraph… “After the Aryan Nations’ heyday, many local officials tried to disassociate the region from extremism. BUT (emphasis mine) in recent years, some politicians, civic leaders and real estate agents have boasted about North Idaho’s CONSERVATISM (emphasis mine) to draw like-minded people. It seems to me that Ms. Boone is saying that the extremism of the Aryan Nation is the same as the conservatism of many in North Idaho, with conservatism being one of the non-predominant extremist groups.

As a conservative in North Idaho, I know that this is not the case. It seems to me that this article would have been better suited to the “My Turn” column rather than in the Local news section.

JODI FREDERICK

Coeur d’Alene