John Day, Oregon protests Aryan Nations

[stevedeshazer]

John Day is a very remote town in Grant County in east-central Oregon. I've been there many times.

Like a lot of places in the rural West, folks in John Day are gritty working-class types. Pickup trucks, guns and Republicans are the norm here.

In 2008, Grant County voted 71.25% for McCain for President.

In 2004, Bush got 78.9%.

But something remarkable is happening there.

The Aryan Nations plans to move their headquarters from Northern Idaho to John Day.

John Day says NO.

http://www.bluemountaineagle.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=12&ArticleID=23148

<snip>

Aryan Nations plan sparks protests in JD

JOHN DAY - Community reaction was immediate and vocal last week as an Aryan Nations leader announced a plan to move the headquarters of their white supremacist movement from northern Idaho to Grant County.

About 80 people picketed last Saturday in downtown John Day to raise awareness of the group's activities, with another 60 taking to the streets on Monday.

Protest organizer Delilah Michael of Prairie City said she couldn't sit quietly when she heard the news that a hate group might come here. She noted that she worries about her mixed-race grandchildren.

"I said immediately, it ain't going to happen here, with my grandkids."

The demonstrations were just part of the reaction to the Aryan Nations plans published Feb. 17 in an online Blue Mountain Eagle article. The news also spurred a torrent of online comments, most laced with frustration, anger and worry. By week's end at least two Facebook pages had popped up to oppose the group's intent to bring its racist agenda to Grant County; together they had more than 1,600 members.

[Lilyeye]

1. This is wonderful. I hope their efforts work.

[customerserviceguy]

2. Thanks for putting up this story

It illustrates one of the points I've tried to make: the tea party is not primarily moved by racism.

I lived 37 years in the Pacific Northwest, from big cities and their suburbs, to little towns in the middle of nowhere, and have seen the political leanings of all kinds of people. The John Day folks are probably ripe for the tea party movement, they sure don't benefit from bank bailouts, or probably from stimulus packages from either party. Yet, if you tried to label them all as racist, you'd drive them into the arms of the tea party movement.

A few ignorant idiots carrying some racially charged signs in a much larger rally don't speak for everyone in that crowd.

[stevedeshazer]

3. John Day to Aryans: ‘We just want you out of here'

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100227/NEWS0107/2270370/1001/NEWS01&nav_category=NEWS01

[LWolf]

4. I was glad to read this in my local paper this week.

I just hope they don't end up heading west; we don't want them, either.

[stevedeshazer]

5. Kick

[cloudbase]

6. I'm going to cross post this over at at Moto Guzzi board,

since John Day is the site of the 2010 Moto Guzzi National Owners Club rally.

[stevedeshazer]

7. Really? No kidding?

That is really cool.

:)

[cloudbase]

10. Troof.

June 24-26. A good place to meet some seriously weird (in a good way) people.

[951-Riverside]

8. Humanity isn't limited to party line.

[stevedeshazer]

9. Of course not.

I like this development.

[cayanne]

11. I live up here in N Idaho

I assure you there is a reason they want to move. They are trying to establish a new compound in Athol which is half way between Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene. In north Idaho and the Spokane WA areas
they have gone around early in the am throwing their literature and application membership forms, along with a small rock, inside a baggie onto residential lawns. Police from both counties talked to
them about littering and they haven't done it again as of now. Tony Stewart and Norman Gissel are doing a great job in Cd'A. We in Sandpoint need more bodies on the HRTF board because we don't have a Tony or a Norman here.

I want them to be kept out of other towns but I don't want them to stay here either. These people, if one can call them that, cannot be changed. Besides the hate factor, too many of us have lost family and loved ones fighting Nazis in WWII. With Morris Dees help, we ran them off up here once and we don't want them getting another stronghold here again.