Taking a Pause: Listening, Learning, Sharing
Our blog has always been about our life in North Idaho. We started it (mostly Andrea) with the realization that many friends and peers didn’t have an appreciation for the area we lived in. Hence the ironically named Stuck in North Idaho.
While we’ve always loved Coeur d’Alene, over the years we have increasingly found ourselves “stuck” as we’ve literally invested our lives here. We volunteer with Lake City Trail Alliance, organize Tuesday Night No Drop rides, trained Juneau as a therapy dog who volunteers at Kootenai Health, raise money for Kootenai County Police and Fire Memorial Foundation. We generally try to stay well informed about local government happenings. We write our experiences and try to capture the essence of local life. We work here for local companies. We’ve made our home here.
We’re as much a part of this town as it is a part of us. Our hearts beat the same. Hearts that are split in half witnessing what happened in our town last week as the nation was protesting, and begging for change over systemic racism and police brutality sparked by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Stephon Clark, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and many more.
Around the country there were many different narratives being shared and while some were similar, none were the same. Protestors in some towns peacefully gathered and kneeled, or walked with police. In other places tear gas and rubber bullets were used to subdue protestors, in some cases only after riots broke out, while others drew fire for standing still or kneeling with their hands up. It really hit home on Sunday night when a special report broadcasted showing protests in Spokane and police using tear gas and flash bangs to enforce a newly announced curfew. Reports that AntiFa and Proud Boys extremists were responsible for the riots spread quickly to Coeur d’Alene. The stories were twisted and exaggerated. People were claiming that vans and buses were on their way to start trouble. North Idaho News (a non-journalistic Facebook page) shared a false report that a blacked-out moving truck showed up in the middle of the night and started unloading bricks. This was debunked by authorities.
There was a knee jerk reaction and some well meaning citizens and others decided to occupy Sherman Ave. while openly carrying semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and hand guns among other weapons. This is not our attempt to vilify those actions. Gun rights are important, but nobody was imminently threatening gun rights last week. Yet, there was a show of force meant to chill any malfeasants before it started.
The narrative that came out of Coeur d’Alene unfortunately was not that Black Lives Matter; it was that gun rights matter. There was not much outward reflection of our privilege in Coeur d’Alene. Even those brave enough to go out and protest around town had to share their narrative with the armed citizens. Stories were about “patriots” getting along with the protestors while protecting them and the business owners. The point was lost in all the noise.
We are not going to pretend that white privilege doesn’t exist. We are taking stock of the advantages and rights we have, when that might not be the case for everyone in this country. We want to take a pause. Instead of sharing stories or videos and pictures of our latest adventure, we want to take some time to better understand the issues at hand and how we can be part of the greater change despite living in a region that historically has very little racial diversity. We want to listen to anyone who has a voice to speak out against systemic racism or police brutality, even if it’s a whisper, drowned out by other noise. We will share our stories again when the time is right.