George, a few of the residents near the Athol-Granite line change could be considered a bit redneck/backwoods, while others are just hard-working decent folks looking to get away from suburbia. As for the Aryan Nations, their H.Q. was down south in the hills outside the Hayden/Chilco area, but they were pretty well driven out of here by tremendous legal and public pressure, and have since resettled, last I heard, somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Allow me this one moment off topic to clue everyone in on what the real deal is here in north Idaho, which is much different from the moments of sensational news that are occasionally broadcast about us on the evening national news out of New York. For starters, I was born in Montana, raised in California, lived in New Jersey for close to eight years, and have lived in north Idaho for about 18 years total. And of all these places, Idaho is where I have experienced the least number of people with racist or bigotted attitudes. When one or two random incidents happen, it is so out of the norm, it manages to grab everyone's attention, especially those who don't live here. The Northeast, on the other hand, clearly had the most widespread and sometimes subtle signs of bigotry of any place I have ever lived. Most of the cities back there are still segregated into their seperate ethnic and national factions, to the point where even the white folks jab at each other over such differences as being Scottish vs. Irish. Statistically speaking, there are many other states in the Southwest, upper Midwest, South, and Northeast which have more neo-Nazi or skinhead groups than Idaho.

One final, important point. A decade before the name Obama became a household word, another man, who I believe was also a junior senator from Illinois, made a run for President of the United States. In the 1996 primary election, Alan Keyes ran on a platform of conservative and constitutional values, which naturally sat well with most Idahoans. I remember seeing local news reports that said Kootenai County (home to Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Rathdrum, and even the Aryan Nations ranch at the time) had one of the highest turnouts in favor of Keyes of any county in the nation. This, with Keyes being black, Kootenai county being mostly white, and having this overblown reputation for racism. In the end, Idaho was among the top five states to win votes for Keyes, mine being among them. In fact, the percentage of Idahoans supporting Keyes was higher than the percentages in supposedly progressive and diverse states like California, Oregon, Ohio, Rhode Island, and New York (he was not even on the ballot in N.Y.).

So anymore, when I see some network news story alleging racism in north Idaho, I wish I could sit them in front of a mirror and say, "cover the problem in your own backyard, it's much worse."