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A word about southeastern Idaho, where schoolkids chant "Assassinate Obama"
By David Neiwert Thursday Nov 13, 2008 10:00am
Excuse me a moment while I go throw up (no offense to David Edwards and Muriel Kane at Raw Story):
Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America" by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school children started chanting "assassinate Obama on the school bus.
Matthew Whoolery told KIKD News he found out about the chanting from his second and third graders, who had no idea what the word "assassinate" meant.
"They just hadn't heard anything like this before," Whoolery stated. "I think the thing that struck us was just like, 'Where did they get the word and why would they put that word and that person together?'"
Whoolery, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University in Rexburg, is not an Obama supporter, but he was shocked that any public official would be threatened in that way. "I don't think that the majority of people in Rexburg have extreme ideas like that, but we were just surprised that it would go that far," Whoolery told KIKD.
The Madison County School District has sent out an email saying that students are to be told this sort of behavior is unacceptable.
OK. I grew up in southeastern Idaho -- Idaho Falls, to be exact, about 30 miles south of Rexburg. I've spent a fair amount of time in Madison County; it was where one of my more traumatic experiences as a young adult occurred. So I can talk a little about why this kind of thing might happen there.
This particular corner of the country, as the Raw Story piece notes, is heavily Mormon. Roughly 90 percent of the population there is LDS. And because of that, there is a virulent and entrenched strain of John Bircherite extremism in the body politic. That in turn has helped produce a long-running parade of right-wing extremists (particularly tax protesters and "constitutionalists") who have made Madison County their home.
At the same time, it is by nearly all outward appearances a classic slice of American heartland. My great-aunt and -uncle, both non-Mormons, lived most of their lives there and were not just perfectly comfortable, thoroughly accepted members of the community, but they loved it. There is a decency and integrity to the town and that transcends political considerations.
So having their schoolkids chant "assassinate Obama" must have shocked their sensibilities deeply, which is why school officials and parents made a point of standing up against it.
At the same time, it's not terribly surprising. And not just because there is such a deep streak of ultra-right thinking that runs through this community -- but also because the campaign just finished by Republicans was so rife with rabble-rousing rhetoric that it is, frankly, a wonder this hasn't happened more often, and in more places than just southeastern Idaho.
In fact, it very likely -- indeed, almost certainly -- has. And it's to the credit of Rexburg's conservative Mormons that they drew attention to it. Perhaps they will stop and take a good hard look at the kind of hate they've been spewing before their children.
If only other Republicans in the rest of the heartland would do the same.
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Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run. May the wings of liberty never lose a feather. ....
My wife and I have been told by our kids that other kids are talking about Obama getting assassinated that sounds like talk they heard from their parents. They aren't saying they will do it, but that he WILL be assassinated. One kid in my child's class wrote about how he was depressed about Obama getting elected because the country was going into the toilet before he was old enough to vote. That was a nine or ten year old. The country is not going to change overnight.
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Northern Idaho aint too friendly either! The panhandle up there? Coeur-d-Alene (sp!) and such? Gorgeous country. Full of bigotry. I drove by a huge barn on the side of the interstate with "STOP THE BEANER INVASION" scrawled on it, and knew of a handful of skinheads (the racist variety) that liked to stay in that neck of the woods, as it was a safe haven...
Northern Idaho aint too friendly either! The panhandle up there? Coeur-d-Alene (sp!) and such? Gorgeous country. Full of bigotry. I drove by a huge barn on the side of the interstate with "STOP THE BEANER INVASION" scrawled on it, and knew of a handful of skinheads (the racist variety) that liked to stay in that neck of the woods, as it was a safe haven...
I used to live in Spokane and CdA - that place is a contridiction in terms. Natural beauty unsurpassed with a handful of exceptions - and human hatred that makes my skin crawl.
Northern Idaho aint too friendly either! The panhandle up there? Coeur-d-Alene (sp!) and such? Gorgeous country. Full of bigotry. I drove by a huge barn on the side of the interstate with "STOP THE BEANER INVASION" scrawled on it, and knew of a handful of skinheads (the racist variety) that liked to stay in that neck of the woods, as it was a safe haven...
Yeah, my buddy lives in Boise and was raised in Robin, ID and says that part of the state is really bad.
I used to live in Spokane and CdA - that place is a contridiction in terms. Natural beauty unsurpassed with a handful of exceptions - and human hatred that makes my skin crawl.
Idaho is in it's own world.
my mom lives in Priest River and its much the same there too. Its crazy, my mom is a hippie surronded by folks like you talk about...
All of these stories seem to give Idaho a bad name. Boise is great, but some of the other places have a lot of work to do to clean up their image. It would be great for some of these people to go live in a huge city for a few years.
It's too bad things like this happen. I lived in memphis for 4 years and big parts of that city are still split down the middle racially.
All of these stories seem to give Idaho a bad name. Boise is great, but some of the other places have a lot of work to do to clean up their image. It would be great for some of these people to go live in a huge city for a few years.
It's too bad things like this happen. I lived in memphis for 4 years and big parts of that city are still split down the middle racially.
I hear St. Louis is TERRIBLY segregated in that manner. The problem with Idaho is that a lot of the White Separatist and White Supremacist organizations have made that their home base. You have Christian Identity and a bunch of neo-Nazi groups and their offshoots operating out of there.
I'd personally LOVE to trek around Utah and Idaho and even Wyoming for the beautiful country, but I'd be a bit nervous about some of the locals....
Idaho is also home to some of the wacky factions of the Mormon church.... Proud sponsors of California's anti-gay constitutional amendment....
__________________
Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run. May the wings of liberty never lose a feather. ....
All of these stories seem to give Idaho a bad name. Boise is great, but some of the other places have a lot of work to do to clean up their image. It would be great for some of these people to go live in a huge city for a few years.
It's too bad things like this happen. I lived in memphis for 4 years and big parts of that city are still split down the middle racially.
I loved northern ID while I lived there. Loved it, and if there was work for me, I'd move back there in a heartbeat.
Like anyplace, though, they have their own unique brand if idiots. Not a reflection on the entire state, just a reflection on the idiots.
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