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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (July 14, 2018)
SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2018 | 7A INTOLERANCE from page 1A Through that, the Christians would release them from slavery. The many gods would turn into one, and Rome as they knew it would be wiped from the face of the planet. “That can be spun to say the fall of the Roman Empire began with emperor Constantine.” Mi- chaelis explained. “It was after his reign that the fall of Rome really began. In a couple of hun- dred years, it was over. That’s historical fact. But I don’t know of any historians who would agree that Christianity was con- cocted by the Jews. But that was the story we told ourselves.” And with that power, the con- spiracy goes, the Jews would be able to “kill all the white people on the planet that had been go- ing on for thousands of years,” Michaelis said. “‘If we didn’t do something about it,’ we thought, ‘the white race would be com- pletely wiped out.’” That’s a common theme in white supremacy, Michaelis ex- plained — the genocide of white people, fueled by an active con- spiracy. Moving Sale July 14th 10am-3pm 43 Park Village Drive Furniture, household, lift-chair, sewing machine, free stuff, plus lots more! GREENTREES VILLAGE COMMUNITY FLEA MARKET & BAKE SALE Saturday 7/14 8am-3pm 1600 Rhododendron Drive In our recreation room EAST SIDE GATE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Moving Sale Fri.-Sat. 9am-3pm 1946 34th Street Furniture, tools, plants, fi shing gear. But with overwhelming evi- dence against their theories, how can they turn a blind eye? “History is always written by the victors,” said Michaelis. “People want to believe that their version of history is an objective, ironclad fact. When in fact, his- tory is a subjective thing. It de- pends on your perspective.” Take the facts you like, and dance around the rest, he said. “Anything contrary to that was a Jewish lie,” Michaelis said. “And now we get to a very im- portant prerequisite to believe any of this s--t.” Anything that did not come from their news sources was propaganda, “A fake Jewish lie,” said Michaelis. If there was a news story that was critical of the movement, Jewish conspiracy. If there were mistakes in the reporting? Jew- ish lies. “If there’s a news story where people take it up a notch and make us look stupid, we said the Jews are trying to make us look bad,” Michaelis said. This phenomenon is not ex- clusive to white supremacists. He brought up Antifa groups, Annual Shelter Cove Neighborhood Garage Sale Sat. 7/14/18 Gates Open 9am-3pm Collectibles, glassware, jewelry, antiques, sports & exercise equip- ment, camping & fi shing hear, furniture, books, bicycles, kitchen & household items, décor, tools, original artwork, baby gear, toys, DVDs, videos, one home selling plants, trees & shrubs. Huge 2-Family Sale Sat. 7/14 9am-4pm 1529 Maple Street (near Boys & Girls Club) Furniture, clocks & more! Moving Sale Fri. 7/13-Sat.7/14 8am2pm 74 Park Village Drive Furniture, antiques, collectibles, misc. stating that if any news organi- zation was against the suprem- acists, they were just corporate media. “You cannot have extremist ideology without the means of dismissing inconvenient infor- mation,” Michaelis said. “And this happens from all sides and all different factions of extrem- ism.” But sometimes, history and science are hard to ignore. Pureblood In a recent issue of National Geographic, the whole concept of race was deemed miscon- ceived. When scientists set out to assemble the first complete ge- nome, they found that all hu- mans are closely related. Every- one has the same collection of genes, and they all come from Africa. “This all gets down to what is white,” Michaelis said. “Who is white, and who is not white? In a 2017 article published by the health and medicine publi- cation STAT, white supremacist Craig Cobb learned that he was 86 percent European and 14 per- cent Sub-Saharan African. Cobb called the findings “sta- tistical noise.” This led researchers to look at what other white supremacists who did DNA testing thought of the results. Some were happy with the sta- tistics. “Pretty damn pureblood,” one said, suggesting that being 100 percent white wasn’t needed. Others used the results as an excuse to say that organizations like Stormfront are actually di- verse, making it impossible for them to be racist. But many looked for ways to discredit the tests. Some stated that such tests were part of a conspiracy “... trying to confuse true white Americans about their ancestry.” Cobb went shopping, accord- ing to STAT. He redid the test from a different company, trying to alter or parse the data until it matched his worldview. Whatev- er the numbers he found, it still came out he wasn’t all Europe- an. But the mere fact that there could be differences in the num- bers from test to test “proved” to him that the test was invalid. The takeaway? If you don’t like what the scientific evidence says, discredit, distort or lie about the science. Because if they did not, how they view themselves would fun- damentally change. “I understand people’s fear of change,” Michaelis said. “Ev- erything that white supremacist groups do all boils down to suf- fering and fear. And that fear is typically fear of change. Fear is one of the most toxic elements in human society that you can have, and it’s also a glaring sign of a very poor group who has to motivate people through fear.” And instead of being afraid of being “erased,” the white supremacists are trying to do something about it. Tee Plab Creativity followers didn’t refer to themselves as white su- premacists, which would imply they wanted to rule over the rac- es — which wasn’t true. They wanted the rest of the races gone. “We wanted our own home- land,” Michaelis said. “The Church of the Creator’s moto was ‘This planet is ours.’” They wouldn’t talk about mass extermination. It was an impos- sible task that had never been tried before — as they denied the Holocaust. “All the other races on earth depended on the white race for survival,” Michaelis said in ex- planation. “They were eating our food and living off our mon- ey. If we just stopped supporting them, they would all ‘wither on the vine,’ which was the phrase they used all the time.” One way to stop supporting them? Start a race war. “People talk about it all the time,” Michaelis said. “There was a real common effort to kick the race war off and then hunker down and come out when the dust clears — and we can take over. That was a ridiculous idea that came up quite a bit.” It’s a rationale that contin- ued long after Michaelis left the scene. On June 17, 2015, in Charles- ton, S.C., Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). He came in during bible study, sat down, quietly listened. He then began to disagree with some of the points the parishioners had made. When the parishioners began to pray, Roof pulled out a gun from his fanny pack and aimed it at an 87-year-old woman. Before he pulled the trigger, the wom- an’s nephew asked why he was doing this. “I have to do it,” he said. “You rape our women and you’re tak- ing over our country. And you have to go." And that’s when the shooting began. The nephew was first to go, after diving in front of his aunt to save her life. A total of nine people were killed. “He wanted black people to riot and attack white people in response to what he did. For- tunately, he was proven utterly wrong and failed miserably. The people of Emanuel AME refused to capitulate. They chose a path of forgiveness and love.” Even though AME chose the path of forgiveness, others do not. White supremacists have other plans to start a race war. Abtifa Pictures taken in August 2017 have become iconic: Young white men, carrying tiki torches, chanting “Jews will not replace us” and the Nazi Germany slo- gan “Blood and soil.” They were gathered in pro- test of the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. At least, that was the stated purpose, according to Michaelis. “The reason there were so many people in Charlottesville is because they could count on An- tifa being there,” he said. “That’s why they showed up in their shields and their helmets. They were going to go brawl the an- ti-fascists, and the anti-fascists were happy to play that role.” There weren’t that many An- tifa members in Charlottesville when the riots broke out. Most of the anti-supremacist protest- ers who went to Charlottesville were peaceful, but some anti-fas- cists seemed to come looking for a fight. Anti-fascist militants (also known as Antifa) are a disparate collection of groups who share some of the same beliefs. While they may use the idea of Antifa as a way to strategize together, it is not a structured movement. “The standard for Antifa ideology is anti-capitalism, an- ti-racism of course,” an Antifa activist told Time Magazine in August 2017. “Those are kind of the two main pillars. But within that, encompassed, it also comes with being anti-racism, anti-sex- ism, anti-ableism, anti-trans- phobia, anything like that and just protecting people who are marginalized and oppressed.” They use direct action against groups who hold different be- liefs. While some groups choose to focus on online activism, oth- ers aim for physical confronta- tion. In Charlottesville, who threw the first punch remains unclear. “I do agree with Donald Trump,” Michaelis said. “There were two sides to Charlottesville, and it wouldn’t have happened otherwise. You can’t clap with one hand, and you can’t have a riot without one side to fight the other side. The violent opposi- tion in this day and age is abso- lutely feeding white supremacy.” If you have a common enemy that you can point to, and count on showing up to fight you, then that will instantly galvanize you to fight. “Groups like Antifa who think they’re going to violently stop white supremacists are doing absolutely nothing of the sort,” said Michaelis. “They are in fact making them more powerful than they’ve ever been.” See INTOLERANCE page 8A YOU are invited to attend a special Anti-Bullying Event by Serve2Unite! “Gift of Our Wounds: Forgiveness After Hate” to be held at the Presbyterian Church of the Siuslaw at 3996 Highway 101 N, Florence on July 15th at 6:00pm Pizza and refreshments will be served at 5:00pm Everyone is Invited ~ Donations Accepted END HATE THROUGH KINDNESS! SPEAKERS: The Serve 2 Unite Mission: A message for all age groups of forgiveness, compassion and peace in the face of hate, racism, and bullying. In the wake of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin shooting on August 5, 2012, Serve 2 Unite emerged in a spirit of defi ance. The hate behind the murders was met with an ongoing practice of fearlessness and creative compassion. Rooted in the principles of service to others, and relentless optimism in the face of adversity, Serve 2 Unite today engages young people of all backgrounds to value humanity and the aspiration of living a genuine, honest life as a peacemaker. Pardeep Kaleka “My Humanity rests in your humanity” ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu Pardeem is the eldest son of Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, who was gunned down during the attacks of August 5th, 2012. Pardeep grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from Marquette Univer- sity. Being a former Milwaukee Police Offi cer and a current teacher in the inner city – Pardeep is no stranger to the never ending battle against racism, bigotry, and ignorance. He fi rmly believes that the lamp of knowledge and truth will outshine all the darkness in the world, and does his best to profess this through his work with Serve 2 Unite. Arno Michaelis “Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolutions.” ~ Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, Arno Michaelis was a founding member of what went on to become the largest racist skinhead organization on Earth, a reverend of a self-declared “Racial Holy War,” and lead singer of the hate-metal band Centurion, which sold 20,000 CDs by the mid-ninteies and is still popular with racists today. Single parenthood, love for his daughter, and the forgiveness shown by the people he once hated all helped to turn Arno’s life around, bringing him to embrace diversity and practice gratitude for all life. Today Arno is a speaker, author of My Life After Hate, and very fortunate to be able to share his ongoing process of character development working with Serve 2 Unite.