CANYON CITY – Grant County residents packed the house Friday for a short course on the Aryan Nations and came away with a message of hope.

“I’ve come tonight to declare a victory in Grant County,” said Tony Stewart, a political scientist and noted civil rights advocate from Idaho. “Never have I been to a community that has reacted more quickly than you have in saying no – there is no room for hate in Grant County in 2010.”

Stewart and Norman Gissel, a Coeur d’Alene attorney who was instrumental in a 2000 lawsuit that deflated the Aryan Nations movement in northern Idaho, were the featured speakers for two “Knowledge is Power” meetings held by the Blue Mountain Eagle at the Canyon City Community Hall.

The Eagle invited the two experts to Grant County after an avowed Aryan Nations leader, Paul R. Mullet, strode into the newspaper office a little over a week ago to announce his plan to buy property and create a white supremacist compound in John Day.

Each of the Feb. 26 community meetings packed the hall with more than 300 people. The morning session drew so many people, organizers had to turn away more than 100 people and it drew a caution from the state fire marshal to keep the crowd to the 300 capacity for the second session at 6 p.m.

The events also drew intense media coverage from throughout the Northwest and beyond, with both print and TV reporters converging on the rural county in an unprecedented but welcome show of attention. The Eagle filmed the programs and streamed them live on the website, MyEagleNews.com, adding more than 500 viewers to the audience.

The turnout was an overwhelming show of concern, support for human rights and solidarity in the community, said Scotta Callister, editor of the Eagle. She opened the gatherings by noting it was “a meeting we never wanted to have.”

Mullet’s plans – and particularly his contention that the Aryan Nations would be “a good fit” in Grant County – inflamed the local populace. Residents staged rallies at the main intersection in John Day last week, with the largest one an all-day affair set to bridge the gap between the two community meetings.

The audience listened intently to Stewart and Gissel, as they discussed the history of the Aryan Nations movement and recounted strategies used by communities across the nation to combat hate.

They said hate groups thrive “in darkness,” so it’s important for communities to speak out against racism and support rights for people of all color and religious beliefs. The Aryan Nations movement has targeted all non-whites, but particularly Jews and blacks. While claiming their own religious formed its own churches that teach intolerance of non-whites.

They stressed the need for peaceful means and statements that embrace democracy and human rights, and they noted that each community has its own way of responding.

“You have to decide for yourselves,” Stewart said.

A group of community leaders began that process Friday afternoon, forming the Grant County Human Rights Coalition. The group is looking at several projects, including a campaign to fly lime-green ribbons from homes, businesses and auto antennas throughout the county as a sign of commitment to democracy, equality and rights for all.

Gissel said that Grant County already has taken “massive first steps” and “you’re going to prevail.

Residents who lined up to ask questions at two microphones stirred some of the most emotional moments at the meeting.

At the close of one session, Meliana Lysne stepped forward to talk about her life in John Day, offering a message that had many in the crowd wiping away a tear.

Lysne admitted to some trepidation as a non-white moving into the community in 1976, thinking that the largely white community might shun her. She had faced discrimination in the South in 1976, and “it doesn’t feel good.”

However, she said she has come to know the people of Grant County as “beautiful people.”

She drew a standing ovation when she told the crowd “Loving one another will break this hatred.”

More details to come in the next issue of the Blue Mountain Eagle.