06/11/09

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ Cattle now graze where the Aryan Nation's
guard tower stood near the northern Idaho hamlet of Hayden. Where
Richard Butler burned swastikas into pine trees, there is a peace
park. Where there was hate, there are wildflowers.

Even as the racist legacy of Butler's 20-acre compound faces
into history, however, news that suspected Holocaust Memorial
gunman James von Brunn spent time in Hayden five years ago swept
the community's ugly past back into national focus.

For Tony Stewart, a longtime human rights activist, incidents
like Wednesday's tragedy underscore the community's heavy burden:
Educating a world that often associates northern Idaho with
neo-Nazis that the place never really matched its reputation and
has changed for the better _ all without trying to sweep the
uncomfortable past under the carpet.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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