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For Whitefish, Charlottesville Tragedy a Painful Reminder of Racist Threats
Whitefish, Montana, is where Richard Spencer's mother lives. He used to stay out there too.
For Whitefish, Charlottesville Tragedy a Painful Reminder of Racist Threats
150 community members gathered Tuesday to honor victims and combat hate, white supremacy
BY TRISTAN SCOTT // AUG 16, 2017
WHITEFISH — With the sun dipping behind the mountains girding Whitefish Lake, a crowd gathered in silence on the church lawn, a mix of faith, race and age braided together for a singular purpose — espouse love, stand up to hate.
As the scattered light cast a golden hue over the 150 community members, city leaders, school children, and activists, many of them in tears, everyone took care to pause and remember why they were here, sitting on the cool grass in the shadow of their beloved Big Mountain.
The tragic events that unfolded last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white supremacist rally turned deadly after a man drove his car into a throng of counter-protesters, stirred up unpleasant memories for the mountain-town community of Whitefish. Residents here are still tending to wounds inflicted last winter, when white supremacists orchestrated an anti-Semitic trolling campaign against several Jewish families and a host of local businesses, threatening to stage an armed march through these garland-festooned streets, where the Whitefish Winter Carnival was underway.
Some members of the crowd wondered what might have happened had the march occurred, if it might have mirrored the gut-wrenching tragedy in Charlottesville, while others praised the community’s resolve to stand up against hate.
150 community members gathered Tuesday to honor victims and combat hate, white supremacy
BY TRISTAN SCOTT // AUG 16, 2017
WHITEFISH — With the sun dipping behind the mountains girding Whitefish Lake, a crowd gathered in silence on the church lawn, a mix of faith, race and age braided together for a singular purpose — espouse love, stand up to hate.
As the scattered light cast a golden hue over the 150 community members, city leaders, school children, and activists, many of them in tears, everyone took care to pause and remember why they were here, sitting on the cool grass in the shadow of their beloved Big Mountain.
The tragic events that unfolded last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white supremacist rally turned deadly after a man drove his car into a throng of counter-protesters, stirred up unpleasant memories for the mountain-town community of Whitefish. Residents here are still tending to wounds inflicted last winter, when white supremacists orchestrated an anti-Semitic trolling campaign against several Jewish families and a host of local businesses, threatening to stage an armed march through these garland-festooned streets, where the Whitefish Winter Carnival was underway.
Some members of the crowd wondered what might have happened had the march occurred, if it might have mirrored the gut-wrenching tragedy in Charlottesville, while others praised the community’s resolve to stand up against hate.
