the average decency of the human race goes up

[sisyphusshrugged]

The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft' interr'd with their bones: Richard Butler goes to his grave alone

Richard G. Butler, the founder of the Aryan Nations and a leading figure in the white supremacist movement who preached that Jews descend from Satan and black people are subhuman, died yesterday in his home. He was 86.

Mr. Butler died in his sleep in Hayden, Idaho, The Associated Press reported, at a home lent by a wealthy supporter after he lost his 20-acre compound four years ago in a lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Mr. Butler, weakened by congestive heart failure, lived out his final years in a house adorned with crosses, relics and books about Adolph Hitler and Holocaust denial. He was surrounded by a dwindling number of quarrelsome followers, but maintained a presence on the Internet, with about 200 followers in about 17 chapters nationwide, said Mark Potok, who monitors the group for the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala.

A racist to the end who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Hayden, just outside Coeur d'Alene, last year "to keep it white," Mr. Butler for decades was a unifying force for white supremacists, skinheads, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and others of the ilk. He propagated the idea that the Northwestern states should be a refuge for whites.

"For many, many years, Richard Butler was the hub of the wheel of white supremacy," Mr. Potok said. "The Aryan Nations compound had a very serious importance in the movement for many years. This was the nonsectarian gathering point for haters of all stripes."

Mr. Butler held a yearly "World Congress" that at its peak drew several hundred people to the compound, near Hayden Lake, which was furnished with a silver bust of Hitler, stained-glass swastikas, Nazi flags, a guard tower and patrolling German shepherds. "Whites only," read a sign at the front gate.

During the last event, in July, Mr. Butler and about 40 followers marched through Coeur d'Alene. He gave the stiff-armed Nazi salute from the back of a pickup truck that dragged an Israeli flag behind.

But over the years, he also inspired a human rights movement in the Coeur d'Alene area. Several organizations opposed to racism and anti-Semitism were founded by local residents in reaction to his presence and out of concern for the area's reputation.

In recent years, criminal prosecutions of his followers, the loss of the compound, suspicions that the F.B.I. had infiltrated the group and defections eroded his influence.

By the end, Mr. Butler's World Congress drew fewer than 100 people, and when he ran for mayor, he lost by about 2,100 votes to 50.

I hope there comes a day when the world is as if it never had Richard Butler in it.

Comments

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I still remember what Michael Moore did to Richard Butler's compound. For one of his "TV Nation" spots, he gathered together a group of GORGEOUS ladies, of every color skin, and had them do cheers (for diversity) in front of the entrance to the compound.

(Falls into a dreamy reverie...) Mmmmm... I give full permission to have Michael Moore bring a truckload of beauties in front of my house, any day. African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinas, European-Americans, ladies from the Middle East... they're ALL good...

*wakes up from his reverie* Oh! The guards, watching, were... shall we say... interested. And they looked crestfallen when they were ordered to leave the front entrance.

THAT was a beautiful strike against racism...