No Place For Hatred Rathdrum Couple Honored For Fighting Racism

In the Nightingale family, racism is like robbery. But instead of taking something material, you are stealing someone’s human rights.

“That’s one of our values,” explained Dawn Nightingale, 36, of Rathdrum, Idaho.

The values of Dawn and her husband Duane Nightingale earned them this year’s Kootenai County human rights award for rallying their small community against the distribution of hate literature. The award, given by the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, was presented last Thursday.

The couple also received a letter of thanks from Idaho Gov. Phil Batt, who denounced hate groups in Idaho last week as “malcontents and screwballs who have chosen to make their home here.”

“In time, the work of people like you will make a difference - not just in the perception of Idaho by outsiders but in how the people of Idaho view themselves,” Batt wrote in his letter. “I commend you for collecting the signatures that make it abundantly clear that Idahoans will not tolerate hate crimes or racist literature.”

Dawn and Duane were raised in small, mostly white towns, he in Oregon and she in Minnesota. But both eventually lived in diverse cities and witnessed bigotry against minorities. For Dawn, it was a move to Salt Lake City that heightened her awareness of discrimination.

“I had two strikes against me when I moved there,” Dawn recalled. “One, I was not of the Mormon religion, and two, I was a woman.”

She was often treated as an outsider. Sometimes, she said, people talked through her as if she wasn’t there. It wasn’t pleasant, she said, “but I feel the Lord put me there to learn so that I may bring my children up in colorless and hateless world.”

The couple moved to Rathdrum last April when Duane was hired at the Acoustic Research Detachment of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bayview to test new noise-quieting technologies for use on U.S. submarines.

Rathdrum’s friendly residents exuded kindness and warmth almost immediately, said Dawn. So they were upset to find that the small town where they would raise their three children had been targeted by the Aryan Nations white supremacy group.

Duane began going door to door to get signatures protesting the literature’s bigoted messages. Rathdrum residents rallied behind them.

They are viewed as champions,” said Josh Buehner, the president of North Idaho College’s human rights club, who lives in Rathdrum. “People were happy to see an average citizen take this on themselves.”

Eventually, the couple collected more than 500 signatures and enlisted the support of both the City Council and the town mayor. For Dawn, petitioning against hate is the stewardship of God. But the hundreds of Rathdrum residents who simply signed their names in protest are just as deserving of the award, she insists.

“Sometimes it does take somebody new to initiate something. But supporting a cause and signing a petition is just as much of an act of courage as being the one petitioning,” she said. “Everybody does their part in their own way and that’s what our community has shown us.”

“This act taken against hate has brought our community closer together as a whole.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo