[Vision2020] In support of Donavan

[Phil Nisbet]

I have to agree heartily with Donavan.  Why is there a constant need to come 
up with what most often turn out to be false statements in this matter?  
Does anybody think that serious credibility is added by sweeping 
generalizations and tie in with unrelated events?

Examples;

“1)  In June 1999, University of Idaho student Matthew Williams and his 
brother James Tyler Williams bombed three synagogues and abortion clinics 
and then killed a gay couple in northern California.  Matthew Williams 
committed suicide; James Tyler Williams now serves two 29-years-to-life 
sentences.  Matthew had been active in many right-wing churches in the local 
community.  Before he went on his murder spree, he was studying Latin at a 
local church.”

This particular reference amazed me.  The Williams brothers were Northern 
California nuts, raised there by a USDA Forest Service Father who evidently 
was part of a Christian Identity sect there.

Matthew Williams was here in this area after a stint in the US Navy and went 
to the University of Idaho, but seems to have attended church at Living 
Faith Fellowship in Pullman WA (He was not a member of ‘right wing churches 
in the local community’ as suggested in Quinlan’s letter, just one local 
church).  According to people who spoke to Reporters after the fact, 
Williams went from being a Christian Evangelical to being an “anti-Cult” 
activist while he was here and dropped out of his membership in Living Faith 
Fellowship.  http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/06/redding/

Frankly, the guy was a nut long before he ever went to the University of 
Idaho and there is no indication that he came up with any of his bizarre 
notions while here.  Under the same premise you could say that the USDA 
Forest Service was a bastion of Racism and White Supremacy.  Or maybe it was 
the Navy.  Or far more likely, it was that the kids had a father who was a 
complete and utter whacko in the Northern California hot bed of Christian 
Identity weirdo’s and he finally stopped trying to have the perfect bowel 
movement in order to switch to killing people.

“2)  In 2001, a University of Idaho student was abducted and murdered.  He 
was gay.  His remains were found only last summer.”

http://www2.state.id.us/crimevictim/news/news.cfm?category=7&chapter=67&article=422

As can be seen from the information made available by the State of Idaho, 
the Death of Wil Hendrick was not in 2001, but in January 1999 and his body 
was found in 2002, not recently.  The State Police and local Law Enforcement 
have said that they do not think that his death was related to his sexual 
orientation and there is no possible link to any hate groups.  Why this 
particular crime occurred is completely unknown and though it should sadden 
us all that a talented young man is dead, it is not exactly a smoking gun 
suggesting mad men on the loose are gunning for gays on the Palouse.

“3)  In April 2002, ASUI members burned the Gay-Straight alliance flag.  
This incident attracted international attention and brought hate-activists 
associated with preacher Fred Phelps to Moscow .”

How many times does a drunken stunt by some goof ball Frat Boys have to be 
pulled up as an example of some giant conspiracy before we can put it to 
bed?  It is not like these kids burned people, or books or gays in effigy, 
they got drunk and flamed a flag for another campus group, were busted and 
paid for the damages and had to abjectly apologize.  None of those involved 
had ties to hate groups and though I think that they definitely need 
sensitivity training and to grow up, its not like they were wearing Brown 
Shirts, singing the Horst Wesel Leid  and goose stepping down Main Street.

As for Fred Phelps, I have to agree that having an original Al Gore 
supporter and campaign chairman in town is a grievous sin that we should 
never allow.  All those Peace trips of his to Iraq seem to put he and his 
group into a series of strange bedfellow’s kinds of relationships, now don’t 
they just.  When gay bashers are members of the Peace Movement, which way do 
you guys want to go with curse or praise?

Then we have this;

“Given this recent past, it’s astonishing that the national media hasn’t 
identified the University of Idaho as a center of hate-crime activity.  In 
terms of the body count, the fare we offer is bloodier than Laramie, 
Wyoming.”

Refresh my memory, but what body count?  Wil died from assailants unknown in 
1999 with no known connection to a racially or homophobic cause.  The nut 
brothers did their killing in their home state of California, not in Moscow 
Idaho.  Fred Phelps was never in Moscow.  Is there a secret body stash that 
only the in crowd is allowed to know about?

The fact is that the bigotry around this town is not one sided.  Some of the 
lovely people who are extremely supportive of anti-CC agenda and big 
supporters of MCAs anti-Naylor Farms initiutive were only too happy to make 
calls to my house calling me a dirty and a greedy Jew.  Other lovely folks 
with that same set of agendas love to poke fun at Donavan's disability and 
still others to Catholic bash.  Heck, I am not exactly free of bigotry 
myself, I do not tend to be a big fan of Arab Muslims, a prejudice I am 
constantly trying to beat back in myself.

But is this a hot bed of mayhem and murder?  Are the Brown shirts and 
Klansman night riding to lynch people?  Does making it sound like that is 
the case assist in solving the problem here at all?

Phil Nisbet

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