Payson Roundup

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

On February 17, in the small town of John Day in Eastern Oregon, the head honcho of the Aryan Nation came to town and announced that he was there to buy property to set up a headquarters for his group. He thought the town and the organization were a good fit for each other.

Surprise ! he wasn't welcomed as a great asset to the community, one who would bring business and create jobs. The people in the town turned out with signs, flags and whistles.
They spent hours on street corners (the one in town with a traffic light) making it quite clear that they wanted no part of that group. Not a single real estate person would talk to them about property for sale.

Now the newspaper is leading the charge against allowing this group to take over their community of 2,000 - and the county which has a population of 7,000.

What would you do if the Aryan Nation decided to buy the old Walmart building and use that as their national headquarters? And maybe they would want another empty commercial building to use to train their organizers.

Would you get involved?

By the way, you can read the news accounts of this mess at

www.bluemountaineagle.com

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Ruby,
Does it make any difference who takes over our vacant bldgs. and country at this point?
Mexicans who are illegals along with the rest of the illegals or citizens that believe different than we do. At least he was honest with what he was doing.

I don't know about Oregon but in Arizona if a Realtor refused to talk to them and/or refused to sell them property because of race, color or creed, they would have thier license revoked.
Also if something happens to him, it will be called a hate crime. How do we win?

I am not taking sides only stating an opinion.

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

Pat,

I can't think of too many people who consider the Aryan Nation as a creed, including our Federal Courts. The very fact that they are a hate group would make me want to keep them out. I'm not familiar with their teachings, but think they want to make this an entirely white nation. And it seems like they also would exile certain religions. I don't know and don't care, but would do what I could to keep them out of my community!

The Mexican Nationals should be shuttled right back to the Mexican Government and if we had a Congress with any cojones they would do exactly that. Maybe it will actually happen if the voters clean house this fall.

Meantime, while people are entitled to opinions, they are NOT entitled to take over an entire town which doesn't want them there to disrupt the peaceful lifestyle of people who live in a remote environment by choice and a community with no “hate” problems.

DanVarnes (Dan Varnes) says…

How would they “take over an entire town” without doing something that would be illegal according to the Constitution?

Freedom of speech, unhindered by government actions or agents, isn't just for people that only believe as YOU believe. It's not limited to “friendly, politically correct”” speech. Sometimes, the person or people exercising their right to free speech is going to actually UPSET somebody.

Imagine that!

DonEvans (don evans) says…

Ruby, I read the article about it. It is interesting from the perspective it appears to be a catch 22. By that I mean I wouldn't want them in my community either, but…If I understand the current Federal Law's, they can not be legaly denied residence, lawfull business (if any), or opportunity to purchase any realestate based on their beliefs. Any entity attempting to deny them without LEGAL cause would be setting themselve's up for a Civil Rights violation law suit. (Town Hall incl.) A somewhat similar situation occured here in the Tonto Village community some years ago. The existing residents did not approve of a new age religious group buying up homes, setting up a school etc. Some of the long term locals there chided the group for being a “Cult”. The group sued some resident individuals because of it. It went to Court here. After some unusual tesimony by the groups leader, they dropped the suit. It was my understanding the group is now in the majority in Tonto Village, but all are getting along now. They also owned a business in Payson, an ice cream & sandwich shop as I recall. I thought it was quite good. Secondly, I would bet the demographics of John Day and it's County are pretty lilly white and I suspect they like it that way for now. Hard for them to legaly justify keeping out the Aryan Nation group I would suppose.

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

If any group came into a town of 2000 people (including children) with the intent of setting up a training program for a citizen militia group and the national administrative headquarters for that group, I do think it is cause for concern for the current residents. It would indeed be a “takeover” of the small community simply because of the sheer numbers of new residents and visitors for training.

I believe the town hall meeting reported in the current newspaper article mentions that a minority race lady who moved there from the south some time ago had great fears that she would not be well received. But she says she has been treated with love and respect.

Of course, the Aryan Nation has never considered the feelings of anyone other than their own agenda.

DanVarnes (Dan Varnes) says…

Ruby, you probably weren't in Oregon when this took place.

Our present legal system is NOT designed to stop this from happening once again. Could the problem be that we just have “too much freedom?” : )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh…

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

Dan,

I didn't live in Oregon at that time, but remember the occurance and the huge problems it presented. And there is no denying that something like this affects the lives of everyone in the community.

This is something that needs to be thought through and some reasonable solution found, if such a thing can happen ! We do have a law against yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater. Seems to me this is something similar since it takes a serene lifestyle away from the people who have built the community in order to allow an event which would destroy their way of life. Don't they deserve consideration of their rights as well.

DanVarnes (Dan Varnes) says…

QUOTE: ” …it takes a serene lifestyle away from the people who have built the community in order to allow an event which would destroy their way of life. Don't they deserve consideration of their rights as well?”

Are you talking about the grand plans of ASU & “Kenny Who” to turn Payson into a college town? :)