Vandals target Kalispell monument again

The Community Spirit Monument in Woodland Park was vandalized again around Thanksgiving, this time by swastikas spray-painted on the monument’s sign.

Erected in 2008 as a response to white supremacist activity in the community, the display has been targeted by repeated vandalism this fall.

In September, the sign in front of the monument was smeared with what appeared to be mud and the concrete benches were broken. There are reportedly no suspects identified.

“This isn’t just a prank. This is not just a couple of teenagers goofing around…It’s a form of domestic terrorism,” said Cherilyn DeVries, the community organizer for the Love Lives Here organization that formed 10 years ago “to promote education and increase equality for communities that face discrimination,” according to its website. Love Lives Here is affiliated with the Montana Human Rights Network.

DeVries gave a presentation Monday night at the Kalispell City Council meeting regarding the hate speech. Two of Love Lives Here’s founders, Rabbi Allen Secher and Ina Albert, as well as Rabbi Francine Roston from the Glacier Jewish Community, also presented at the meeting.

“My main message was ‘we’re here to help,’” DeVries said.

The city removed the spray-painted swastikas from the Community Spirit Monument sign the weekend following Thanksgiving. The sign describes the purpose of the monument, which includes a gazebo and benches covered with 2,000 tiles handmade by community members. The sign proclaims, “WE ARE ALL ONE!” and tiles carry messages such as “No hate here, just love.”

DeVries told the Daily Inter Lake this vandalism is “destructive” and “extremely hurtful.”

“It strikes fear,” she added. “Even if you don’t see it, it makes people fearful.”

She also reiterated the Nazi iconography has a strong impact for local members of the Jewish community and other minority groups. “It’s seen as destructive, but the full impact of that hate symbol is not felt in the community,” she said.

However, she also said the vandalism presents an opportunity for the community “to use that to speak out against that activity.”

She explained that data gathered through the Montana Human Rights Network suggests incidents of hate speech should not be ignored. Instead, a positive and unified response from the community reaffirming the values of diversity and inclusion may be the best way to quash white supremacist activity, based on other incidents in the state and across the country.

“The data shows if you don’t speak out against white supremacist activity, it can take root and grow,” DeVries noted. Ignoring this activity can lead communities to be overrun by hate groups. She pointed to the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, the site of a white supremacist demonstration that left one protester dead in 2017, as an example of a community that allowed white supremacy to flourish because of a “live and let live” attitude.

DeVries said an emphasis on “neighborliness, kindness and acceptance” is often the best response to incidents of hate speech.

“Only towns that have pushed back and communities that had pulled together have overcome it,” she said, referring specifically to the “militia movement” in which white supremacist militias attempted to infiltrate Montana towns in the 1980s.

“That’s the accepted practice now,” DeVries reiterated. “You don’t look away.”

DeVries also spoke to the Kalispell City Council about the need for a communications system that includes the city, law enforcement and community members, to develop a “more coordinated, unified response” to events like this.

“It helps with backing off rumors; it holds the community together and it gives them a direction to go in,” she explained. She said there are plans to follow up on this system with City Manager Doug Russell and Police Chief Doug Overman.

She also shared tools people in the community can use if they encounter hate speech. The Montana Human Rights Group has a five-step Rapid Response Guide that steps people through what to do if they experience hate incidents, which can be found here: https://mhrn.org/publications/fact%20sheets%20and%20adivsories/HateIncidentRapid-ResponseGuide.pdf

They also have an online reporting form where people can anonymously document these incidents, available here: https://mhrn.org/reportingform/

DeVries said she felt the information was “positively received” by the Kalispell council. She thanked Mayor Mark Johnson for his statement regarding the vandalism at the council’s Oct. 23 meeting, where he said, “The city of Kalispell condemns these actions and wholeheartedly supports our Jewish friends and neighbors every day…the city of Kalispell values, recognizes and includes all citizens without regard to race, color religion, gender, national origin, age, ability, marital status, sexual orientation or political affiliation. We are a stronger community because of the diversity, mutual respect and the human kindness that bonds us together.”

Moving forward, DeVries said Love Lives Here is working with one of the original Community Spirit Monument artists, Kay Lynn, to make repairs to the monument, specifically the destroyed benches. She mentioned the group may ask for volunteers to help with the creation and installation of these pieces.

She said Love Lives Here also aims to identify and combat any future white supremacist activity in the area. “We want to get on top of it so they don’t get the upper hand, so they don’t define Kalispell,” she said. “We don’t want just a few people making a bad name for the whole community.”

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.