Gloss doesn't help area militia's image

Nice picture on the back of the Bee recently. It shows what the caption called the Idaho Lightfoot Militia after helping with the Kilt Run. Puts a nice spin on a group that at its core is nothing but a group of people who run around with guns and play like they are a military organization.  (Which they are legally allowed to do.)

They call themselves The 21st Battalion of North Idaho’s Lightfoot Militia and they are in our community. Matter of fact the militias leader, Jeff Stankiewicz, on the far left in the Bee picture, even teaches music to kids in the community.

They have had contact with militias in Washington and Idaho, and they were even listed, through a link, on the Web site of the Hutaree militia. You know them, the ones who wanted to kill law enforcement officers and as a result nine were arrested in late March.

Oh, and here is another quick reminder of militia history. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols both members of militias and we know what they were convicted of doing. And then there is their association with Rex Rammell, the candidate for governor who in the past wished out loud that he had a license to hunt President Obama.

It really doesn’t matter how much of a gloss they try to put onto their organization they are a militia. And with the history of what militias have become in this country we should fear them. True they have done nothing illegal to this point, and let’s hope nothing ever happens, but we do need to be aware of these groups and what they really stand for and not let a picture and a good deed gloss over a potentially dangerous group. I would encourage everyone to check out the Nightline segment on the militia at the ABC Nightline archives.

TIM MECHAM

Sandpoint