North Dakota Human Rights Coalition
Working to effect change so that all people in North Dakota enjoy full human rights
|
North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Working to effect change so that all people in North Dakota enjoy full human rights |
|
Click PayPal link for direct credit card contribution or PayPal payment options. (No PayPal account necessary!)
Interested in Receiving NDHRC Email Newsletter? |
~North Dakota Human Rights Coalition PAUR Report~ Visit our Website at www.ndhrc.org
September 16, 2003
Programs ~ Announcements ~ Updates ~ Resources
Hello members and friends of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition!
In this week’s PAUR Report:
Announcements 1) NDHRC Board Members in the News 2) Conference information, including registration, now available for 'Fostering a Network of Support for Human Rights Advocates in North Dakota' at http://ndhrc.org/NDHRC Human Rights Conf Oct 2003.htm on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25 at the Ramada Plaza Suites in Fargo
Newspaper Articles 3) The Forum (Fargo), The Forum (Fargo), Other views: Commandments monument is a specific, divisive symbol 4) The Forum (Fargo), Khat arrests may show culture clash 5) New York Times, Haden Journal (Ohio), A White Supremacist’s Last Grab for Glory 6) The Forum (Fargo), International students see fear 7) The Forum (Fargo), Wrigley defends Patriot Act 8) The Forum (Fargo) is publishing a four-day multimedia series, “Dying Tongues”, on how three North Dakota tribes are fighting to preserve their language and culture
Events 9) United Nations International Day of Peace Vigil, September 21, 2003, Fargo 10) Mental Health Association in North Dakota Presents, Women’s Mental Health: Research, Trends and Issues, Professional Conference and Annual Meeting, October 8-9, 2003, Fargo
Reminders 11) Social Justice Scholarship for Women of Color 12) Sisters of the Presentation at Sacred Heart Convent Presents “Peace Studies” 2003 Series (Various Locations in ND and MN) 13) North Dakota Peace Coalition 20th Annual Peace Congress, October 17 – 18, 2003, Fargo 14) Fargo-Moorhead Area Amnesty International Monthly Meetings Beginning September 20
********************************************* Announcements *********************************************
1.) NDHRC Board Member in the News
Sherri Parsons, recently appointed North Dakota Human Rights Coalition board member married her partner Vickie Nixon in Canada. This GBLT topic is in the forefront of societal debate.
View the article in the High Plains Reader below:
Cover: http://www.hpr1.com/archives/sep0403/default.htm
Article: http://www.hpr1.com/archives/sep0403/coverstory.htm
*********************************************
Join us for our multicultural social, Friday, October 24, 2003 and first annual human rights network support conference, Saturday, October 25, 2003 at the Ramada Plaza Suites and Convention Center in Fargo, ND.
The Fostering a Network of Support for Human Rights Advocates in North Dakota conference is designed to bring together concerned individuals, community leaders, support and advocacy organizations and professionals who share a common interest in human rights for North Dakota.
View additional conference information here
********************************************* Newspaper Articles *********************************************
3.) The Forum (Fargo), Other views: Commandments monument is a specific, divisive symbol
Other views: Commandments monument is a specific,
divisive symbol
Tim Zastrow (Forum, Aug. 29) has revived the local issue of the Ten Commandments through reference to Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore’s defiant stand against removal of a near-three-ton monument version. Moore has been legally suspended from office, as a result, by his own colleagues on his own court. Apparently most of them can read and understand the U.S. Constitution. They abide by laws of the nation, particularly the First Amendment.
The United States is touted as a “nation of laws” and “the letter of the law” has repeatedly been -- from the U.S. Supreme Court -- on the side of upholding Amendment No. 1. The language is quite clear, “Congress shall make no laws supporting the establishment of religion.” Ask most church members; they will tell you that they feel comfortable under such protection.
The Fargo City Commission made much of its “forward-looking” institution of the Human Rights Commission. The City Commission members were coming up to speed in today’s world: this body’s mission is to deal with problems resulting from Fargo’s remarkable population growth and the many citizens’ diversity of races and creeds -- in anticipation of bringing attention to any violations of rights.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
4.) The Forum (Fargo), Khat arrests may show culture clash
Khat arrests may show culture clash
Three Minneapolis men were in Cass County District Court Monday on charges from Fargo’s largest seizure of khat, a leafy plant commonly chewed as a stimulant in East Africa.
Fargo police officers found 19 pounds of the drug last week in a package that arrived at the Holiday Inn, where an employee reported the suspicious-looking mail. A hotel security officer reported back to police at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday when two men checked in and asked for the shipment, court records say.
After interviewing the men, police arrested Mohamed Dahoir Mohamed, 39; Liban Yussuf Mohamud, 31; and Salah Yusuf, 47. They each were charged with one count of possessing khat and another count of conspiracy to possessing it with intent to deliver, both felonies.
Grown mostly in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, khat is legal in most areas where harvested and in much of Europe, including Great Britain, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Web site.
The men arrested Saturday are from Somalia, where using khat for the mild euphoria it offers is a cultural practice, the DEA said. Mostly a male habit, chewing the bright green leaves and rhubarb-like stalks is often done while socializing. Laborers and farmers sometimes use it to reduce fatigue; drivers and students use it to stay alert.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
5.) New York Times, Haden Journal (Ohio), A White Supremacist’s Last Grab for Glory
Please note the following article demonstrates how a local human relations commission successfully responded to the white supremacist movement in Idaho.
By Sarah Kershaw, New York Times Hayden Journal – 9/12/2003
HAYDEN, Idaho — A difficult history of racial friction lurks here in northern Idaho. It is a history that the ailing leader of a dwindling band of white supremacists is proudly promoting as he makes one last grab for notoriety.
"We want to keep it white," Richard G. Butler, founder of the Aryan Nations, said of the place he has made home for more than three decades.
Mr. Butler, who
created the group in 1973 and a religious arm of the organization a few years
later, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, is 85 now and fragile. But he is
running for mayor here nonetheless, seeking perhaps his last chance to preach
the Aryan Nations doctrine that has
It is known as Christian Identity, and among its central tenets are that Jews are satanic and African-Americans are subhuman. Running for mayor, said Mr. Butler, a longtime area resident known as Pastor Butler to his followers, is a way to spread his message and have "a lot of fun" besides.
Few except Mr. Butler and his few, fiercely loyal followers take his candidacy seriously.
"He's slowly disappearing into the sunset," said Ron McIntire, the current mayor, who besides Mr. Butler has no other opponents in the November election. "This gives him an opportunity to speak up again, but I don't think it's a serious thing at all."
Still, Mr. Butler remains steadfast in his devotion to peddling his white supremacist platform — long after he moved to this corner of the country known for its remote mountain terrain, ethnic homogeneity and live-and-let-live credo.
His campaign is a reminder to Idaho residents that it is hard to shake the area's image as a major center of the white supremacist movement.
"He's been a factor in the life of this larger community for a long time," said Mary Lou Reed, a former state senator and the founding president of The Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d'Alene, a resort city a few miles from Hayden. "And we always have to ask ourselves: Why did this happen here? What is it about our community?"
Even as Mr. Butler has continued to push his platform in recent years, much has changed here, beginning with a $6.3 million civil judgment against the Aryan Nations in 2000 that bankrupted him and forced him to turn over his sprawling compound in the hills east of here to a local woman and her son. They had sued Mr. Butler's group for shooting at them one night in 1998.
Human rights activists eventually gained control of the 20-acre compound and turned it into a "peace park," after allowing the fire department to burn its 10 buildings to practice firefighting.
"There has been a 50-year movement to try and reinstate the Nazi doctrine, and Richard Butler was the grandfather of that movement," said Tony Stewart, a professor of political science at North Idaho College who has been Mr. Butler's nemesis for decades.
Mr. Stewart moved to Coeur d'Alene in 1970, three years before Mr. Butler moved to nearby Hayden Lake from California, and helped start the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which became the local organization for battling the Aryan Nations.
The task force, which began with 10 people in the basement of a Coeur d'Alene church, successfully fought for state antidiscrimination laws in Idaho and took up the cause of some local minority members who had been harassed by Aryan Nations members.
Mr. Butler's group held its annual World Congress in the area for more than two decades, drawing several hundred people a year at the height of its power. The last gathering, in June, drew 75 to 100 people. Some experts on the Aryan Nations said the group was able to draw that many people only because many figured it would be Mr. Butler's last World Congress.
The dwindling crowds at Aryan Nations events, and plans to build the center, indicate just how much progress has been made to rid the area of the group's racist views, Mr. Stewart and others say. "A big, big chapter is finished," he said.
What the next chapter entails and what will happen to the white supremacist movement in northern Idaho when Mr. Butler dies is not clear. But for now, he carries on, living in a home given to him by a follower on a narrow residential street in Hayden, not far from the former Aryan Nations compound.
His breathing is
labored — he has been hospitalized several times for congestive heart failure —
and he is not always lucid. But he managed to speak for almost two hours in a
recent interview in his living room, which is adorned with crosses and religious
relics and filled with books about
He insisted that his health was fine. He also insisted that the Aryan Nations was as strong as ever, with as many as 40,000 "card-carrying" members. He said that locally his group was rebounding after the civil judgment.
"The trial broke us financially," he said. "But we're now coming back financially, so I want to get this word out as best as I can."
He added, "We're experiencing a resurgence now."
But experts at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which monitors white supremacist groups and brought the lawsuit against Mr. Butler, said the Aryan Nations had become deeply fractured over the last few years.
"I don't think we'll ever see the Aryan Nations reach the kind of power and influence it had in the 1980's, not even close," said Mark Potok, editor of the center's Intelligence Report, a quarterly investigative magazine about radical right-wing groups.
Mr. Butler remains single-minded in promoting his beliefs, however, and has named a successor, Harold Ray Redfeairn, an Aryan Nations leader in Ohio. It is possible that once Mr. Butler dies, the movement's center could shift to Ohio or another state, or fade away, Mr. Potok said.
"It's a waiting game until Butler dies and we see what happens next," he said.
Article no longer available online.
*********************************************
6.) The Forum (Fargo), International students see fear
International students see fear
When terrorists took control of four airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, they also hijacked the dreams of millions of foreigners seeking a better life in the United States, Haroune Sidatt said Thursday.
On the two-year anniversary of the attacks, Sidatt, a native of Mauritania in western Africa, joined three other panelists at Minnesota State University Moorhead to discuss the impacts of 9-11.
The lives of international students have changed since the attacks, said Sidatt, an MSUM alum and graduate student at North Dakota State University.
“Racial profiling, open religious discrimination remind us how high is the level of fear that our host is experiencing,” he said.
“Not only are Americans afraid of foreigners, but I can tell you, for myself, foreigners are afraid of foreigners.”
Ongoing acts of terrorism overseas remind international students that their loved ones also are potential victims of violence, he said.
<snip>
View full article here
*********************************************
7.) The Forum (Fargo), Wrigley defends Patriot Act
Wrigley defends Patriot Act
Two years removed from the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans can partly thank the controversial USA Patriot Act for not suffering a repeat tragedy, North Dakota’s U.S. attorney told a group of lawyers and judges Thursday in Fargo.
Though civil rights groups rail against the legislation as an abuse of government, local and federal authorities have used the act’s new powers fairly and effectively, U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley told the local American Inns of Court chapter.
“We are being very aggressive in the war on terror -- we are not being zealous,” he said. “And there’s an important difference there.”
Wrigley’s speech was part of a national campaign by the Justice Department to answer criticism of the act, which the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit against in late July as unconstitutional.
<snip>
View full article here
********************************************
8.) The Forum (Fargo) is publishing a four-day multimedia series, “Dying Tongues”, on how three North Dakota tribes are fighting to preserve their language and culture
The Forum (Fargo) is publishing a four-day multimedia series, "Dying Tongues", on how three North Dakota tribes are fighting to preserve their language and culture. Read it online at http://www.in-forum.com/specials/DyingTongues/index.cfm; click under "Tribes" on the left side of the multimedia home page to read the Forum articles.
********************************************* Events *********************************************
9.) United Nations International Day of Peace Vigil, September 21, 2003, Fargo, ND
The International
Day of Peace Vigil (www.idpvigil.com)
is a global 24-hour spiritual observance meant to demonstrate the power of
prayer and other spiritual practices in promoting peace and preventing violent
conflict. Presentation Peace Studies, Faith Lutheran Church and Nativity Social
Justice Ministry invite you to Holden Evening Prayer in celebration of love,
peace, non-violence, and global solidarity. The Prayer will be held at Faith
Lutheran Church (127 2nd Avenue East, West Fargo, ND) from 5:00 - 5:50 p.m.
Whether or not you are able to attend the prayer service, please find time to
reflect on how you might be a sign of peace in your family and in your
community.
*********************************************
10.) Mental Health Association in North Dakota Presents, Women’s Mental Health: Research, Trends and Issues, Professional Conference and Annual Meeting, October 8-9, 2003, Fargo, ND
The conference is designed for mental health professionals, educators, counselors, advocates, social service providers, health care providers and individuals who want to learn more about women’s mental health.
For more information contact the Mental Health Association of North Dakota at (701) 237-5871 or mentalhealth5@juno.com.
********************************************* Reminders *********************************************
11.) Social Justice Scholarship for Women of Color
The THIRD WAVE
Scholarship program is for young women of color who prioritize social justice
and the work done in the spirit of justice and equality over academic
performance, and who integrate social justice into all areas of their lives. The deadline is
October 1st for Spring 2004. To qualify you must be: 1. Undergraduate
and graduate students enrolled in an accredited university 3. Demonstrate
financial need - Primary criterion The application
form is available
here The number of
scholarships awarded depends on the amount of each award. Scholarships range in
amount from $1,000 to $5,000 each. For more
information contact the Third Wave Foundation at 212-388-1898 or e-mail
*********************************************
12.) Sisters of the Presentation at Sacred Heart Convent Presents “Peace Studies” 2003 Series (Various Locations in ND and MN)
Presentation Peace Studies has an excellent series of forum speakers for the coming year. Please mark your calendars and more information will be forthcoming this fall!
Nov. 14, 2003 - "Security: An Affair of the Heart" Fr. Johns Sandell, Fargo Jan. 23, 2004 - "What Is a Peace Church?" Dr. Gerald Schlabach, St. Thomas U., St. Paul Feb. 27, 2004 - "What Does My Faith Call Me to in Violent Times?" Panel of three: B'hai, Quaker, Muslim Mar. 26, 2004 - "Jesus against Christianity" Dr. Jack Nelsonp-:Pallmeyer, St. Thomas U., St. Paul April 30 & May 1, 2003 - "Receding Violence, Reseeding the Earth - Harmony in the Web of Life" Helen Prejean and Marya Grathwohl
View additional information here
*********************************************
13.) North Dakota Peace Coalition 20th Annual Peace Congress, October 17 – 18, 2003, Fargo
The North Dakota Peace Coalition will host its 20th annual Peace Congress in Fargo on October 17 - 18. The theme is "New Leadership for Peace and Social Justice".
View additional information here
*********************************************
14.) Fargo-Moorhead Area Amnesty International Monthly Meetings Beginning September 20th
For additional information contact:
Reggie Windham
*********************************************
***Member Reminder*** Please keep us in mind for your group or church social action/social justice meetings! We’d be happy to provide a presentation at a meeting or provide newsletter articles for your organizations.
************************************************
Do you have a Program, Announcement, Update or Resource that you would like shared on our weekly PAUR report? If so, please send an email to AndreaDeegan@NDHRC.org and we will do our best to accommodate you.
If you are not a member of NDHRC yet, what are you waiting for? Sign up now! On-line or by mail, it's all set at: http://www.ndhrc.org/membership.htm
Not getting the PAUR Report directly in your email? It's so easy to be added to the PAUR mailing list! Email HumanRights@NDHRC.org
If you have received this email in error, or would like to be removed From the PAUR Report mailing list, please send an email to AndreaDeegan@NDHRC.org for immediate assistance.
|
North Dakota Human Rights Coalition P.O. Box 1961 Fargo, North Dakota 58107-1961 Phone: (701) 239-9323 Fax: (701) 478-4452 Email: humanrights@ndhrc.org
|
