Dear HCN,
I just
finished reading Rocky Barker’s swell piece on the transformation
of Idaho into a hate-free zone (HCN, 9/30/02: Idaho seeks a
reputation – and a reality – free of hate). Before any comments …
time for a pop quiz:
Two months ago I was thrown
out of a motel (the only one in town) because, and I quote, “We
don’t want your kind around here.”
I am (choose
one):
A) Black.
B)
Jewish.
C) Iraqi.
D) A Black,
Jewish Iraqi.
E) An
environmentalist.
Ah, you are so perceptive; a
card-carrying “E”, that’s me. Some of those cards I carry
read:
A) The Nature
Conservancy.
B) The Sierra
Club.
C) The National Audubon
Society.
Alas, I also am an unabashed (better
make that “bashed”) supporter of Earth First!, initially in the
Redwood wars of California and for the past ten years with the
successful Cove/Mallard campaign in scenic downtown central
Idaho.
To add to my stigma, I am a transplanted
New Yorker, born in scenic downtown Brooklyn (just like your
beloved and amiable Ed Marston).
For the record,
the owner of the motel had boasted to me the previous day (before
she recognized my stripes) that she was, and again I quote, “of
Christ.”
Now, class, what conclusions can we draw
from all this? I find myself at a loss for words (me?). But I do
get these increasingly frequent urges to get into a wolf disguise
and chain myself to the door of a
church.
Robert (Uncle Ramon)
Amon
Dixie,
Idaho
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Idaho isn’t hate-free yet.
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