Weeping in the gymnasium: one local triumph [updated]
While I have never been anything like what I would call a patriot, there is something about voting that always sends me into tears. The elderly men and women, the ones who have their health and all day's worth of time to sit at tables and check off your name, so slowly... performing such a crucial duty for their community. The lines of people, all ages, stripes, kinds and colors, waiting as long as they must for their turn at pencil and paper (no machines for us yet), chatting amiably with the utterly random strangers on either side. There are so few community events like this now, where almost everyone participates.
All ages, stripes, kinds, and colors-- well, not so many colors, here in Bozeman, Montana. But more on that in a minute.
Today we had an extraordinary School Board election. More on the flip.
Generally, one doesn't expect too much interest in a school board election. It's Tuesday, May 3; ballots could be cast, at only one location, from noon until 8 pm; it's final exam week at the university. But this election was different, because one of the candidates, Kevin McGuire, had become infamous in our town over the past few months. He first became known in January, when leaflets for the National Alliance, a white supremacist group, started showing up in people's yards and driveways. Our local paper did a
profile on him on January 30:
The California native arrived last fall with two goals: study civil engineering at MSU and recruit members for the National Alliance, a West Virginia-based group seeking a whites-only, non-Jewish society.
"That's all I want," McGuire said.
McGuire brought the alliance to Bozeman. He is responsible for racist fliers distributed in Bozeman, Belgrade, Manhattan, Three Forks and Livingston. He organized the alliance's 13-person opposition to a diversity rally that drew more than 1,000 people to downtown Bozeman in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
"It's not really that I have something against (other races), I just really like my own people," he said.
His world views are not his parents' and he cannot pinpoint when they solidified. But several years ago he started listening to "American Dissident Voices," the alliance radio program.
"I decided to join because of that," he said.
What he heard on the radio cemented his desire to live in a white-only society, in a "culture that's based on European ideals," he said.
Kids today grow up feeling like they're "individuals in a cosmopolitan sea," he said. "We believe each individual race should have the right for its own determination."
That is impossible now, he said, because he believes Jews control the media and the government.
In April, McGuire surprised everybody by gathering enough signatures to run for school board. Many angry letters to the editor followed, by citizens who'd signed his petition in ignorance of his views and felt he'd been dishonest in his canvassing. But McGuire was unapologetic:
"I didn't straight lie to them," he said. "I told them I wanted to make changes in the community. People who asked if I belong to the National Alliance, I told them I did."
"We're not motivated by hate, we're motivated by love of our own people and our desire to survive as a people. We are strictly non-violent, 100 percent legal at all times. ... Our message is about self-love and pride.
"We know each individual culture has its own intrinsic beauty.
"We think Hitler committed some atrocities against humanity and we want nothing to do with any of that."
This, by the way, is the National Alliance's own summary of its philosophy, available on its website:
We may summarize in the following statement the ideology outlined above:
We see ourselves as a part of Nature, subject to Nature's law. We recognize the inequalities which arise as natural consequences of the evolutionary process and which are essential to progress in every sphere of life. We accept our responsibilities as Aryan men and women to strive for the advancement of our race in the service of Life, and to be the fittest instruments for that purpose that we can be.
Nope, they're not Nazis. No freakin' way.
Besides, look at this example of McGuire's tolerant nature:
Asked if he thought Bozeman High School's African-American principal is unqualified, McGuire replied there are bright individuals in every race, and Bozeman schools are some of the nation's best, so it appears he's doing a good job. It's easier in a school that doesn't have big crime, drug and gang problems, he said.
Now Bozeman, Montana, as I mentioned, is a very white place. You know, there are a fair number of Native Americans. A handful of Asians and Middle Easterners. A much smaller handful of African-Americans (that principal and his kids were among a very few in the high school, reports my ex-high-school foster son). But, to its credit, this very white place draws the line at Kevin McGuire. There was much talk and reminding of one another to vote in the election today-- vote against McGuire. There were full-page anti-McGuire ads. There were (a few) marchers with signs. Best of all-- when I got to the gym at 6:00 this evening-- it was packed. Absolutely packed. For a school board election. People waiting in lines all over the place, 20 or so polling booths, all full, and big smiles all over everybody's faces. Because the town showed up.
We could have defeated Kevin McGuire, probably, if only 50 people had voted. But-- I don't know the tally-- but I would guess it was thousands. Everybody wanted to be part of the giant "NO" handed to Kevin on this night. You think you represent us, white boy? Think again. NO.
And... despite the fact that I always knew he wouldn't, couldn't win... and despite the fact that his loss does not magically turn Bozeman more diverse... and despite the fact that it was only a school board election... I left the gym and cried. Because people, many people, are good. And they cared enough to show up and be counted, many more than needed to be counted. And it made me proud to be... dare I say it... an American. For today.
So tell me a story. Do you have a local triumphant moment that gave you hope today (or last week or last year)? A proud-to-be-a-citizen-and-human-being moment? Please let's help each other remember that not all the news is bad.
*Update [2005-5-4 10:42:22 by renaissance grrrl]:* Turnout was 4,260 voters (17% of registered voters), with 157 votes for McGuire. This was the highest turnout for school elections in 21 years. The school tax levies also passed: 81% yes for the elementary district, and 77% yes for the high school.
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