OPINION: The only agenda is human rights for everyone

Editor's note: The full column can be read at https://bit.ly/3MELcDH on cdapress.com.

The Human Rights Education Institute (HREI) was founded on principles of the Constitution of the United States of America and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These documents establish the principles of dignity and worth for every human being. HREI fulfills this mission by promoting human rights as an essential element of a just and successful democracy.

It is disappointing to the leadership of our organization that Ms. Lynda Putz, a fairly new member to Hayden who has not had the traumatic firsthand, experience that her long term neighbors of Hayden Lake had with the Aryan Nation and Richard Butler’s compound, chose to make several misassumptions about HREI, its agenda and purpose at a recent Hayden city council meeting.

Although the physical presence of the Aryan Nation compound is now gone, the footprint has remained in Hayden Lake and left unforgettable ideological marks on the region even after the Aryans seemingly disappeared.

“While our ability to formally express opinions in a public forum to the city officials of Hayden is a celebrated freedom,” shares Colonel Mark Coppess, USMC, Ret., HREI board president, “Mrs. Putz’s mischaracterizations of HREI as a progressive political engine is inaccurate and undermines the spirit of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness our nation was built upon. HREI is not a political organization with a progressive agenda. The Education Institute was established to raise awareness and educate our community on human rights issues of all kinds. The goal is to build a community where people with vastly differing views, beliefs, and racial orientations are treated with dignity and respect.”

In response to Laster’s request for a strong anti-racism statement from Hayden City Council, Putz looked around the room, and based on the appearance of skin color in the audience she stated, “I’m probably the only minority in the room,” and proceeded to speak on behalf of other groups in the community. We are thankful that Ms. Putz has never experienced discrimination since she moved to North Idaho. However, that is not everyone’s personal lived experience. HREI has received 300 percent more reports of hate speech, incidents of harassment and discrimination across a broad sector in the last year than it has received in the last three years in total.

In her My Turn Article, March 5th, Putz asks, “Was racism ever an issue in our country?” It most certainly still is an issue across our nation. HREI agrees that it affects all races, including the white race, at times. ”Marshall Mend, longtime KCTFHR member, is famous for stating, “Silence gives consent.”

“HREI is learning too,” Laster emphasizes, “collecting data and research that can and should be scrutinized from all points of view. A critical aspect of education is to start with awareness on what is really going on in our area. Factual data provides insights that are not always seen by the community at large, but can support long term goals and understanding in our community.”

Putz proclaims that her comment “a white supremacist is a patriot,” was taken out of context and virally shared on social media platforms. This type of national media attention serves to hurt us all. HREI’s leadership is perplexed by Ms Putz’s statements, as many of HREI’s team serve or have served in military or law enforcement and supports true American Patriotism. They do NOT consider any part of their service to be affiliated with an ideology which teaches that Jews are the offspring of Satan and should be exterminated, which accurately describes the white supremacy philosophy. We Thank Ms. Putz for her service. However, to associate any form of patriotism with white supremacy is objectionable, and not at all amusing even in political jest.

“There are ugly parts to white supremacy that Ms. Putz doesn’t speak to,” says Coppess. “We, as a community are better off looking at the complete picture. In this age of information that caters to whatever category you’d like to belong to, it is important that we as individuals are willing to listen and are ready to learn in a broader sense than what we are getting from partisan news sources.”

We would suggest that Ms. Putz is resenting a national dialog, rather than being open to the intentional effort to reduce prejudice that is going on our very own Homefront. This is not a leftist agenda, but a human agenda, facilitated by nonpartisan collaboration. She asks, “Where was Jeanette Laster and the Human Rights Institute when BLM and Antifa terrorized and assaulted people for being white, burning, vandalizing, burglarizing and destroying cities? They were hosting 200 concerned community members in a thoughtful dialog and calling for civility and peace. “Where is their call for a statement against rioting that only further alienates and marginalizes certain groups?” This statement was made the day after George Floyds death when our nation broke out in anger and pain.

In the words of Reverend Bill Wassmuth, “Saying yes to human rights is the best way to say no to bigotry and racism.”