I posted this first on Monday, August 26 after the weekend the stories appeared in the local media. Since the Fair opens today (and since I was supposedly on vacation when I wrote this), I am posting it again, as promised, preceded by a few notes on subsequent developments.
Preface:
It looks like the State of Liberty people will have their booth at the Interstate Fair despite the uproar. Surely they hope to capitalize on extra publicity to convince new passersby that a 51st State is a grand idea.
On September 2, an unnamed writer for Liberty State railed on the Liberty State Facebook page in response to Chad Sokol’s August 24th article in the Spokesman. Sokol’s article raised the issue of Liberty State’s Spokane Interstate Fair Booth. The “Response” is a curious read (click here). Its essence is to state that the facts of Sokol’s article “were simply wrong. It was replete with factual errors, distortions, misquotes, and one-sided reporting.” That is quite a sense of umbrage which the writer backs up with…nothing. No rebuttal. No counteracts. Nothing. I have to take this writer’s “Response to Media Reporting” as a wordy version of yelling “Fake News!” It is an effort to whip up the faithful.
Ms. Holaday (the likely writer of the “Response”) took her case to a news conference the group held in Moses Lake Wednesday evening, Sept 4. Chad Sokol reported on it. I encourage you to click and read Sokol’s front page article from the Wednesday, Sept 5, Spokesman, “Liberty state proponents push plan to secede from Washington at Moses Lake press conference” Before reading it you might want to review my original post below detailing Rene Holaday’s writing and connections. Her Moses Lake presentation, I think you will agree, is a model for those wishing to downplay their origins and associations.
My favorite quote from Sokol’s article on the Moses Lake news conference::
“When both [the west and east sides of the State of Washington] are a plague to each other because of natural cultural differences, and both would be much happier without the other, there’s only one solution that works very well for both sides,” she [Holaday] said. “And that is the amiable formation of the new state of Liberty that both sides agree would be the best win-win situation.”
For the purpose of the news conference, Holladay is framing the formation of her 51st State as a fancifully amicable divorce upon which we’ll all agree. Ridiculous. In a less public forum her passionate statement was, “It’s either going to be bloodshed or Liberty state!” This is a restatement of the Bundy family’s motto, “Whatever it takes…” Both statements skate at the margin of sedition. (Several of Bundy’s followers have certainly taken it that way and gone on to acts of rebellion; topic for another day.) I bring up the Bundy clan here since many 51st Staters, including Matt Shea, are intertwined with the family.
Stop by their booth. Ask questions. See what they’ll reveal.
Read on for more detail on Rene Holladay and the booth at the Fair.
AUGUST 26th POST: REDUX COPIED (UNCHANGED):
Dear Group,
The Spokane County Interstate Fair runs from today, Friday, September 6, to Sunday, September 15. Matt Shea and his theocratic 51st Staters (State of Liberty) have reserved a booth at the Fair. That has become the subject of controversy. At the booth they will soft peddle the theocratic, revolutionary side of their idea. Surely, if you stop at the booth, you will hear talk of the “conservatism” of eastern Washington and how “we” in eastern Washington are always voted down by those terrible liberals on the west side of the state. You will hear how a 51st State (to be composed of what is now Washingotn east of the Cascades and, maybe, just maybe, parts of Idaho, Oregon, and Montana) will give “us” conservatives a greater voice. Everything presented will sound oh so reasonable to the average moderate conservative unfamiliar with the theocratic, militant background of this movement.
Please click and read the Spokesman article by Chad Sokol “51st state supporters reserve booth at Spokane County Interstate Fair, draw scrutiny” from Saturday, August 24th. I want to provide a little background. René Holaday, aka Lady Liberty, hosts a “Liberty State Radio” podcast. Take a moment and listen to her introductory broadcast at the RedoubtNews.com website, “Liberty State Radio – Episode 19-01 – Intro” (If you’ve never heard of the “American Redoubt,” it is time. It is the descendant of the Aryan Nations. It has grown fat on electronic media in the Inland Northwest while we slept.)
Ms. Holaday in her podcast is far clearer than the folks who man the booth at the county fair will likely be. She is indeed the author of a book. The synopsis of the book at Amazon is a mandatory read: “The Perils of Sustainable Development.” The book taps right in to themes you can hear on youtube and from many pulpits in Evangelical churches: the evils of the United Nations, the “New World Order,” the threat to our “liberty.” Implied, but not quite stated, is the underlying sense of a grand, evil conspiracy against “us,” the chosen people. Be afraid, get ready to fight, the forces of evil are gathering against the Chosen, the End Times are nigh!
Ms. Holaday was recently fired from her position as legislative aide to Matt Shea. A less than careful reader of Sokol’s Spokesman article might suspect a rift between Shea and Holaday. Not so. As Daniel Walters explains in lengthy detail in an Inlander article referenced in the Spokesman, Holiday was not fired by Shea, but by Chief Clerk’s Office of the Washington State House of Representatives. She was fired for her involvement in Liberty State rallies. (Read the Inlander article. It provides a lot of detail.)
Holaday’s statement at the Liberty State rally last May, “It’s either going to be bloodshed or Liberty State.” was published in the Spokesman. Walters, of the Inlander, pressed Holaday for an explanation:
“What we’re doing with Liberty state, we’re offering a peaceful option of dividing the state rather than having to defend your rights in whatever way you decide you might need to,” Holaday says. “How much illegal stuff can be done before people can start feeling like they’re cornered? That’s why this Liberty state [proposal] is so awesome. It gives people the peaceful option and a legal way out where they’re not forced into that corner.”
Read that again: “..peaceful option…rather than having to defend your rights in whatever way you decide you might need to.” Holaday is just restating her “bloodshed” comment in different words. Wow. It’s Liberty State or armed revolution for her! This is scary stuff, well beyond just participating in a rally (the ostensible reason for the Chief Clerk to fire her). Notice that Shea, who routinely refuses to talk to the “godless” media, is mum.
Some might argue to “simply ignore them and they’ll go away.” It is way beyond that. In this era of organizing and propagandizing electronically, Holaday, Shea, Fagan, Benn, the Redoubters in North Idaho and all their fellow travelers have stolen the march while most us have slept. The Aryan Nations did not go away because they were ignored. Neither will their descendants. It is time to educate ourselves on the ideology of this movement, expose the candidates and elected officials who endorse it, shun them, and vote them out of office. People who tote assault weapons, train youth in “biblical warfare,” and threaten bloodshed if they don’t get their 51st State have no business with a booth at the County Fair.
Go to http://chng.it/pGgbbXddx7 and sign the petition.
Please share widely.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry