Dees: America is still a place where hate groups persist

By ROGER H. AYLWORTH - Staff Writer

To Morris Dees, America is a nation where the vast majority of people are reaching out to one another, a nation where hate groups persist and a nation that will not be satisfied "until justice rolls down like waters."

Dees, head of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has made it his life's work to attack hate groups in the civil courts. He was in Chico Tuesday night to speak at Chico State University as part of the campus' continuing "building bridges lecture series."

Speaking to roughly 1,000 people in the 1,300-seat Laxson Auditorium, Dees said much has happened since Martin Luther King Jr., quoted the Old Testament prophet Amos as saying, the nation will not be satisfied "until justice rolls down like waters."

While in ways things have improved, according to Dees, "America is divided."

In a soft Alabama drawl, Dees said the nation is divided over sexual orientation, along color lines, over religion or "non-religion," over gender, age, and over wealth and poverty.

At the same time it is a nation that will say no to hatred.

He told a story of a Jewish boy in Billings, Montana.

His parents had given him a menorah, a candlestick used during the celebration of Hanukkah, and the boy was so proud he put it in the window so all of his neighbors could see it.

Dees said one night somebody responded to the symbol of joy and hope by putting a brick through the window.

But the town would not stand for that.

A merchant in Billings, according to Dees, with a marquee that was usually for highlighting sales items, posted the simple message, "Not in our town."

A campaign, involving all segments of the community, began to put paper menorahs in the windows of every home in Billings.

A few days later the Jewish family took their young son on a night drive around the town and after seeing the menorahs backlit in so many windows, the boy said, according to Dees, "Mom, I didn't know so many Jewish people live in Billings."

"They aren't Jewish, but they are our friends," was the mother's reply.

"There is a battle going on in this country," Dees said.

He told the heavily college-age group, that they will either sit on the sidelines and let others set the national agenda or they will step in and set the course for the nation.

He said they must decide "whose America it is, and whose version of America will prevail."

Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, did not think of himself as evil after setting off the huge bomb.

He saw himself as a "hero, a patriot, doing his part to see his vision of America won out."

He said the FBI recorded 10,000 hate crimes in America last year, ranging from headline-grabbing murders, to small but still vile crimes.

During a press conference prior to his speech, Dees said the biggest concentration of hate groups in America was in Pennsylvania, but he said the greatest current danger from hate groups was the 450 "hate" Web sites currently on the Internet.

People, who would never think of attending a KKK meeting, will find these Web sites, electronically enter a chat room, and fill themselves with the rhetoric of hatred, according to the attorney.

"Our nation is great because of its diversity, not in spite of it," said Dees.

He said his wife is a weaver who makes magnificent tapestries that are so much more beautiful because of the intertwining of a range of colors, than they could ever be in a single hue.

He said a nation of diversity and strength will prevail as the citizens learn tolerance and love, until all can "sit down around the table of peoplehood and learn to love one another."