Dear HCN,
Steve Lyons rips on the
Aryan Nations as a pack of dimwits (HCN, 8/16/99). Fine, I’m with
him there, but it seems Lyons is so blinded by his own politically
correct views that he didn’t catch himself perpetrating yet more
stereotypes. As an expatriate Montanan, I resented the
“Ford-with-Montana-plates’ sound bite. Since when are all Montanans
racist? And what is the justification for his declaration that it
was hard to separate the “typical xenophobic, anti-Hillary and
Hanoi Jane, anti-environmentalist Idahoan?”
Holy
moly! Just get out that brush and make us a tar
baby!
Fact is, like most denizens of the Inland
Empire, I’m not too crazy about showboating weirdos with an agenda.
I don’t like Richard Butler and his gang. I even went so far as to
join the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment because
of their countermarches and the like. But when I attended one of
their conferences in Colorado Springs, I realized there are
showboating fruitcakes on both sides of the
fence.
I’ll bet most of the parade goers were
simply thinking: “Boy, I wish these loudmouth protesters would just
shut up and go away.”
Butler’s compound may not
close, Steve Lyons may never shut up, but at least he’s moved to
Washington.
Dave
Skinner
Pueblo,
Colorado
The writer is a field
coordinator for People for the
USA.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Lyons is a stereotyper.
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