Racists Ruin Sunday on Hayden Lake
Colleague Jim Hagengruber witnessed the following along Dike Road near Honeysuckle Beach at Hayden Lake Sunday:
A casting agent couldn’t have picked a better set of rednecks: they were pot-bellied, wore sleeveless t-shirts, clutched beer bottles and were accompanied by a black lab with a confederate flag tied around its neck. The lab was running loose and snapping at other dogs tied to trees along the beach. A collar dragged from the lab’s leash. A parent told one of the men to control the dog. The man shrugged and smiled: “My dog’s on a leash,” he said, before taking another pull off his beer. Soon, there was shouting. One of the men yelled out, “White pride!” His cohort’s arm rocketed upwards in a Nazi salute and he shouted, “Seig heil!” All this happened Sunday night on the shores of Hayden Lake, near my favorite swimming hole. I was bobbing in the cool waters about 100 feet from the beach with my wife and a friend.