Letter Re: Retreating: A Minority Perspective

Hello Jim,

Blessings to you and your family.

Here are my comments regarding the article Retreating: A Minority Perspective, by Alex B. The Aryan Nations group has been forced out of North Idaho.  Not only did they lose the lawsuit that took away their “compound”.  The new owners allowed local fire department to train on site when the buildings were torched.

Their leader, Richard Butler, died a few years later and the rest of the bugs left for parts unknown.

This small group was good at making themselves look bigger by holding an annual camp-out at the compound and marching in a parade.  Most of their support was from out of state.  It made them appear much bigger than they were.

North Idaho is a land of free and true patriots and not racists.  Here is case in point.  Until recently, the only living black recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor from WWII lived in St. Maries, Idaho. He was married to a white woman (as if that matters).  Vernon Baker recently passed away at the ripe old age of 90 and is now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  I saw him in 1997 when he was the Grand Marshal of the Coeur D’Alene, Idaho Fourth of July parade.  He received a standing ovation from both sides of the street along the entire parade route.  The crowd was probably 99% white.

Baker’s story is told in “Lasting Valor” by Ken Olsen, from Bantam Books.  Baker would sneak out of camp and single handedly dispose of Nazi machine gun nests. He would skip up the steep hills jumping rock-to-rock to avoid land mines.  Upon his return no one believed him so he had to go out and do it again several days later against the same re-manned machine gun nests.  Incredible!

It’s sad that more Americans know about Idaho via the worm Butler and his ilk but nothing about a true American hero–the late Lt. Vernon Baker.

Sincerely, – B.H. in North Central Idaho