Dear HCN:
Writer Stephen J. Lyons
failed in his attempt to accurately quote the slogan “Idaho is what
America was,” just as he also failed in his attempt to accurately
portray the state of Idaho (HCN, 3/16/98).
I
know. I’m the guy who coined the phrase in 1978. I’ve also lived in
the state for a lot of years and know its places and people better
than most, and during much of that time I’ve served on the staffs
of people that Mr. Lyons possibly felt fairly comfortable with –
Sen. Frank Church and Govs. Cecil Andrus and John
Evans.
Don’t confuse the political conservatism
that prevails in Idaho with the outright political wackiness of
Butler and Gritz and their ilk. Your average Idahoan is no more
comfortable with those folks than is Mr.
Lyons.
Mr. Lyons doesn’t know how to answer
people who ask, “What’s up with those Nazis?” One can only assume
that he must have spent his stay here with his head buried in our
mountains or rivers. Otherwise he might have talked about the
35,000 who attended the Anne Frank exhibit in Boise. Or Gov. Phil
Batt’s championing of fairer treatment for farm workers. Or that
the first Jew to be elected governor of any state was Moses
Alexander of Idaho. Or the outstanding work of the Kootenai County
Human Rights Task Force. Or the University of Idaho’s Lionel
Hampton School of Music and the 13,000 young people who come to
campus each February for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Or the
extensive programs honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. each year at
Boise State University. Or the pride that we take in Idahoan Vernon
Baker being the nation’s only living black winner of the
Congressional Medal of Honor. There is a lot to be proud of in
Idaho, if you only look for it.
It is curious
that Mr. Lyons blasts Idaho for so many things and then holds up
California as the example of a state that seems to be doing things
right in the area of diversity. This morning’s news says the number
of black and Hispanic applicants for next fall has dropped 36
percent at UCLA and 55 percent at UC Berkeley. We may be slow in
diversifying in Idaho, but at least, unlike California, we are
headed in the right direction.
Some people
recognize the need for change and do what they can to influence it.
Others simply move from place to place seeking a paradise that
others have already labored to create. My heroes are the ones who
stay around and work for what they profess to believe
in.
Martin L.
Peterson
Boise,
Idaho
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Idaho can be whatever you are willing to make it.
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