Racism in This Campaign? You betcha!

It started after the Obama campaign began in Idaho. Our local newspaper, the Bonners Ferry Herald, along with the Idaho Statesman, printed an LTE that called Obama a Muslim who tooks his oath of office by swearing on the Iran (sic) and all sorts of other misinformation, racial slurs, and outright lies. Then, about a month ago, the Spokesman Review, decided to print the Michael Ramirez political cartoon, Lipstick on a Pig, a very racist caricature of Barack Obama. The actual cartoon can still be found at radical right websites, although it was taken off Ramirez's usual website post, Investor's Business Daily, about five hours after it was originally posted.

And now it turns out that one of our only large Obama signs in Bonners Ferry has been defaced by someone who spray-painted a large, black "N" over the "O" in Obama.


Is this an act of hatred and racism? An adolescent prank? A politically motivated activity? Well the Boundary County Democrats are providing a reward for information that will lead to the arrest of this person or persons. Why? Because not only is this a rash and egregious political act, but with its undertones of racism, if not blatant hatred, it is a message that most Idahoans do not want to send. Republicans and Democrats alike have worked very hard to fight the presence of Aryan Nation types, to promote Human Rights, and to make our state too great for hate. Such defacement of a political sign is not good for the election, for the county, for the state or for the nation.