Front Street Weekly; 502

[Richard Butler] And that's all the white man has today, Is to work and pay the taxes and finance his own destruction. [Reporter] Richard Butler claims white Christians can't prosper because of Jewish influences. The trail really does give you good perspective on- on what's important in life to you. I just wrote to somebody in a postcard that I thought I'd be shocked saddened and relieved at the same time when I get up there finally. [Reporter] They're talking about the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2500 mile journey through the wilderness. We met up with two hikers who will share their adventures with you. You come with us as we visit some piano bars to talk to some fans who keep singing along. [Man speaking] It's a marvelous way to relax. If you love music, which I do. Come to a piano bar. It just, takes your cares away, so to speak. [Reporter] Good evening. I'm Gwyneth Gamble-Booth. You'll see those stories tonight on Front Street weekly, Oregon Public Television's news magazine. Jim Swenson will be back with

us in a few weeks. Well for many of us the idea of white supremacy is something that exists in history books. It might be dismissed as something that could happen in other places in different times. But reporter Steve LaBelle found groups of neo-Nazis who consider the Northwest home and their message never seems to change with time. [LaBelle] This is the entrance to the Church of Jesus Christ Christian Area Nations. It's part of a sect called the Identity movement. And from it comes a gospel of hate, bigotry, and white supremacy. [Butler] I fought in World War II as many of you here did. And I'll tell you the only thing I can see now is, that I was a part and parcel of a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white race off the face of this earth. [Woman and congregation]: Amen. [LaBelle]This is a Sunday morning prayer service conducted by Richard Butler. He is the architect of a theology of hate. [Butler] Hate is our law and revenge is our duty.

[LaBelle] From this church in Hayden Lake, Idaho's self-proclaimed Reverend Richard Butler preaches Sundays, now only to a few dozen followers. They are bent on hearing his cry for the preservation of America but only for white Christians. Butler's main theme? It's insanity to believe all men are created equal. [Butler] The white working man has no representation in this country, the only ones is the non-whites. We got 25 cities now that are non-white. 25 of the largest cities in America now have been taken over. So whites are becoming the minority. [Lobel] He constantly tells his followers this is a race war. Victory will come. The white race is being destroyed by the deceiver. [Lobel to Butler] Who is the deceiver? [Butler] The deceiver is again Jewry who claim to be the chosen ones. They are chosen, they are chosen to represent the seed of Satan, the children of Satan. [LaBelle] The children of Satan, the Jews in particular are mongrels responsible for all the ills that have fallen onto the world. White Christians from

Western Europe are the true chosen children of God. [Butler] Their end view is based upon Jesus Christ, upon the scripture and upon that we stand. In other words, the battle for The ?inaudible? of the earth is between the white race and the non whites. And Jews are not white.They're not a race.They're a hybrid Even they admit this. [Labelle] Peter Lake is a freelance writer. He joined Butler's church of Area Nations to get a complete picture of Butler and his followers. [Lake] Their philosophy is that they are the chosen people, the true Israelites that Jews are pretenders to that title and that the United States is the promised land and they're entitled to it. [Labelle] Members of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian Area Nations believe they are an army for Christ. They are sworn to do battle with the world's Jews. [Butler] When you to have the state then have the army. [Labelle] Church members claim the battle to regain America for the white race is underway. White people are making their last stand in the

northwest. [Lake] We're in the Idaho woods here at a little silhouette city that they built for arms training. Uh Dave Tate right there's on the run, running through the woods firing weapons at imaginary and targets their favorite enemies. Menachem Begin right here for example. [Labelle] The Anti-Defamation League is a Jewish human rights agency. The ADL monitors the activities of hate groups. Marvin Stern is the executive director of the Seattle office. [Stern] So it's been the mandate of the organization since it's beginning to work towards discrimination-free environment for all Americans. [Butler] Since right now we have to recognize the reality. that uh, Jewish interests the anti-defamation league ?B'nai B'rith? which does run the FBI and I challenge anybody to refute that. They do give the orders to the Federal Bureau of Investigation every FBI agent knows it. [Labelle] 23 people have been indicted for their hand

in violent, racially motivated crimes in the Northwest. White supremist groups seem to have found a home base in the region. [Stern] There are not large concentrations of minorities. And the fact that this tends to be rather rural part of the country and again outside the major cities there is very little scrutiny in what you do. [Labelle] Members of hate groups are spread nationwide. However, total membership appears to be dropping. [Stern] According to information we had the Klan, various Klan organizations in this country, had a combined membership in the area of 6,000- 6,500 nationally and the various neo-Nazi phenomenon type organizations has a combined membership of about 500. [Lobel] The Posse Comitatus, White Christian paramilitary organizations, survivalists, and other groups are also under the watchful eye of the ADL. Their socio-economic climate is ripe for recruiting. [Stern] These people tend to be the not the most successful people in

our society, are looking for a reason for that. Cannot find that reason within themselves and in a traditionally scapegoat kind of phenomenon, find other ways, other people, other races to to place the blame on for their own lack of success. [Labelle] This is the meeting hall of the Portland area Posse Comitatas. The Posse started out as a nationwide tax protest group. However, recently, some of the chapters follow the Identity Church movement. And, the exact philosophy of this group is still unknown. However, Butler claims to have Portland area organizers for his church, and he says he has close ties with this Posse group. Butler,a former aircraft engineer moved the church from Los Angeles to Hayden Lake Idaho 13 years ago. [Butler] ?inaudible?. [Broadbent] He and Hal Hunt take credit for establishing a Posse Comitatas chapter here in Kootenai County I believe under the name of The Christian Posse Comitatas of Cutney County.

[Labelle] The chapter disbanded three years later after several confrontations with the law. [Broadbent] Many of the members I know have spoke in the past have said the reasons being is that they thought they were gonna be a true help to law enforcement, and it turned out to be they were no help whatsoever. Several of..I know I expressed opinions that Butler was just building his own private army with the Posse Comitatas. [Lobel] Broadbent, who is considered an expert at following the activities of such groups, documented Butler's ties with the Portland Posse chapter; first with Sylvester ?Arar? who ran the chapter until his death in 1984. Then with this man, Michael Lynn ?Hansen?, founder of the Christian nationalist White People's Party. ?Hansen? writes for area nations church publications. Every summer, Posse members head for the Butler compound for the Aryan Nation's Congress. [Broadbent] In general categories there were Klan, the neo-Nazi organizations, survivalists, Posse Comitatas,

tax protester groups who have an anti-government position or stance. [Labelle] Residents of this northern Idaho recreation area are reluctant to talk about Butler and his church activities. Now a locally run human rights taskforce does look into charges brought against the church and protects those that have been harmed by racial activities. [Broadbent] I think it's much more of a political kind of group with a particular stance that, in my mind, has very little connection with religion or Christianity at all. [Labelle] Church members have been charged with interfering with the task force. Malicious harassment is a felony in Idaho, and that legislation was sponsored by the taskforce. [Broadbent] A human rights task force will, will protect the rights of people who are harassed by them. And we will pursue that legally and every other means possible. [Labelle] Out of Butler's Church followers came in splinter group. The order: Some two dozen members are connected with murder, armored car robberies, and

counterfeiting. [Broadbent] He rides a fine line between actively promoting crimes and staying clear of them. And I don't think really that he's going to get caught. [Lobel] About the only pretty thing around this cabin ?side? on Whidbey Island in Washington is the view. And about 10 months ago Robert Matthews then the leader of the radical group The Order, died in a shootout and fire with federal authorities. And since then the group, an offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, has been without a leader. And most of its membership is under federal indictment. [Broadbent] People who belong to these organizations as a result of their determination that they were not succeeding in the direction they were going, they felt it necessary to go off in a different direction that was moving into urban terrorism. [Lake] They have seminars on training and how to counterfeit identification and what to do when the world is coming to an end.

[Labelle] The world may be coming to an end for the reverend Butler and his followers. All is not well at the church compound. Butler's chief of security Bud Cutler is awaiting trial for arranging the assassination of an FBI informant. [Butler] Anyone who believes in the preservation of their race, and the perpetuation of their race, and the laws of God, we work with. [Broadbent] Again because of the economy, people who may not otherwise be sympathetic to this kind of thing perhaps giving a little bit greater attention to their, to these kinds of statements these kinds of views because of their own difficulties. [Labelle] Still the faithful come every Sunday. They send their children to the church school to learn reading, writing, and racism. [Gamble-Booth] The FBI has broken The Order and severely weakened other hate organizations. But people from white supremacist groups claim they will recover and again grow strong. One person we talked to in Hayden Lake said even if Butler and his church members

left the area, the human rights task force would continue to keep a watchful eye on other hate groups that undoubtedly could develop. Most of us plan our vacations with some modern form of transportation in mind. We buy plane tickets or we make sure that our cars are tuned up and ready to go. We plan trips which will last a week or two, or maybe three. Well reporter Hope Robertson met two individuals on vacation this fall. They plan to travel 2500 miles in six months, not by plane, car, bus or train but they walked- 2500 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. Here's their story: [Keith Jones] It's not like it hasn't been done before either but not that many people have done it and I've certainly never done anything like this before. My name's Keith Jones and I've been working as a civil engineer in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the last two years. On foot's a good way to see the country too

that's for sure. And I'd been around a lot of California just driving and been down through Washington and Oregon when I was real young in a car also. And it's nothing like seeing it step by step. I met Jeff on the northern edge of the Mojave Desert right before he went into the southern Sierras. [Jeff Sauer] The P.C.T., the Pacific Crest Trail, crosses the country from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. From what I've heard only about 40 people a year hike the whole thing in one season. It'll be almost six months, it's four months right now, of constantly walking. The head of the Pacific Crest Trail Club recommends going alone. It really doesn't mean that you're going to be going alone, it means that you're going to buddy up as you go. For me, it was strictly a personal thing that I wanted to do. Certainly for

the view and for the nature of it and also I think it's a journey inside yourself. Certainly, you know Jeff Sauer, meet Jeff Sauer. You see a lot of the land as God created it, you know, unspoiled and to me it wanna- it makes me want to protect it more. [Keith Jones] Quite a few people have said ah that's something I've always thought I'd like to do. It is a huge undertaking and you'll probably become an expert backpacker but you can kind of learn as you go along. It's going to cost me I'd say 3,000 to 3,500 dollars. But when you look at it, you know, what I'd be living, you know what it would cost me to live on if I wasn't doing this for half the year, it's a pretty cheap vacation, is the way I see it. Thank you. [scraping noise] Pancakes. That's what- this is pancakes right? [Man] That's what it's made out to be, I don't know. I don't think it made it.

[Jones] Now I'm trying to make 18 to 20 miles a day to get up to the Canadian border. You just commit yourself and, you know, it's not like you have a weather report to tell you what's up ahead or you just kinda keep going and I guess it can probably build some character after a while. [Jeff Sauer] Hiking up the Timberline Lodge here in this blowing rain that was almost hypothermic. That was a real chore. [Man] This would be like one of the really few times that it would be, might be- might be better better to be with somebody else. In fact I thought about hanging out here another day just waiting for Keith, 'cause he's only a day behind me, I think. And then him and I could take off together. And I certainly don't mind snow, but if the snow starts accumulating like you know, a couple feet, then it will probably

be impassable because the trail runs along mountain sides, and you've got avalanche danger. So that's what the race is all about of this. Racing against winter. [Jeff Sauer] Well that's a, that's a rain - a forest service guard station, [Woman] Right, Little Savannah, it's open to the public. [Jeff Sauer] Oh, really? [woman] Yeah. [Jones] By the lodge, I was eating breakfast, and the waitress and told me that one of the women there had hiked the most of the P.C.T. so she came out and it does help because you find out what's ahead and what to watch out for. Stream crossing is one, and stuff like that, and where the free showers are and the free good places to camp. [Jones] The way I see it is, you know you're take nature on it's own terms, if it means walking in the rain and well that's what you experience and that's all part of it; it's not going to be an enjoyable thing every step of the way. [Sauer] When do you get in? [Jones] Probably about

three hours ago. [Sauer] Did you get in that storm? I was right at Timberline when that storm was blowing like hell [Jones] Oh yeah? I was down lower. [Sauer] Were you getting wind? [Jones] No, just rain. It seemed like about 30 hours straight rain. [Sauer] yeah All I know is I slept in a damp a few nights. How's your damn bag doing? [Sauer] I don't know what the future holds. I've thought a lot about work and stuff and career and stuff like that, and I have done a lot of thinking about, you know, jobs where you get two weeks vacation the rest of your life. The job I had was a real high stress job. And if I go back to that job I'll be thrown from a life of solitude and peace into a tremendously stressful lifestyle, and I'm questioning that.

I'm not going to work the rest of my life with two weeks vacation because there's too many other adventures waiting. [Gamble-Booth] Jeff and Keith promised to call us when they made it to the Canadian border. And according to their schedules that should be any day now. In the meantime, we'll hope we haven't heard simply because there aren't many phones along the trail. And if walking 2500 miles isn't exactly your idea of a good time, don't worry we have another option. Perhaps a stroll to a piano bar for an evening of musical entertainment is more your style. Well tonight you don't have to take a step. Just sit back, relax. Because reporter ?Kaya Zaladek? brings the piano bar to you. [piano music, singing]. [Man] I think there's the generation that used to like to get together and sing. gather around the piano and

sing. It could be in the home when you couldn't turn on a television set. You'd, somebody played the piano and you'd sing. But nowadays, a piano bar is one of the few places you can do that. [singing/piano] [Gamble-Booth] But the folks gathered here tonight in Jade West's Lounge, this is more than just sitting around and listening to Herb Hall play the piano.This is a piano bar, and those who love them say they're something special. A gathering of good friends, good drinks, and good music. A place to go where everyone knows your name. [Man] You have to understand that we're all close friends here. Everybody knows one another and yet, if you came in not ever having been here before you would never be treated as a stranger. [Other man] It's a marvelous way to relax, if you love music, which I do. Come to a piano bar. It takes your cares

away, so to speak. [Singing, piano] [Woman] It's kind of like a, an enlarged family with the regulars. [Singing, piano] [Man] I guess we all have our centuries, and we tend to pick the kind of music that we can reminisce with the most, and I find that Herbie plays enough, a wide enough spectrum, that it's easy to identify the music that he plays. [music] [Gamble-Booth] This piano at Jade West just the oldest one operating in the city today. It's been the main attraction here for over 18 years. Fashioned in the original classic style, a bar is built into the back and sides of the piano, and chairs then placed around the bar in a half circle. It's this kind of circular set up that many say creates the closeness [music] [Person] It doesn't necessarily have to be the, per-se, piano

that's built around there, it could be tables. The mere fact that you're near the pianist makes it a piano bar. [Man] I suppose the uniqueness of it is only in that it affords a, a communication between the player and the people who want to get involved, sing, or just sometimes I think 50 percent of it is just rapping with the people talking with them. [Gamble Booth] 20 to 30 years ago piano bars were all the rage in Portland area clubs and taverns. Why, at one time you could find as many as 20 night spots featuring this kind of entertainment. All you had to do was stop by The Castle Club, The Hoyt Hotel, The Hilton Hotel, The Sheraton, and the Portland Motor Hotel, The Cosmopolitan, and The Blue Heaven for a few verses of your favorite tune. [Woman to crowd] What are we gonna sing? [singing] For many years, Oregon law limited bar room entertainment. Usually you could only hear music from a phonograph or a jukebox and even when there was a live performance it was limited to a

single musician. The piano bars fit in perfectly, and they went for years without much competition. But in 1973, the Oregon State Legislature made some changes in the law so that live bands could also play. Rock n roll was in, and piano bars started to fizzle out. This is a piano bar that used to be part of the old Aero Club in Portland. Now that the club is closed it's piano's up for sale. Today they're about half as many piano bars as there used to be but quantity isn't quality and they haven't lost their appeal. [singing] Eve Shelton is a veteran piano bar entertainer. She began tickling the ivory here in Oregon back in the 1950s and Eve hasn't turned in her song books yet. She's still playing in clubs around town. And we found her playing host to this roomful of guests in the lounge at Lila's Caravan Motel. [Eve Shelton] Number one, I think in order to be a successful piano bar

person you must like people. Also you have to know a lot of old, old, old songs. Sing-a- long That's the word for piano bar. That's there so that people who love to sing and are not in a position to do it professionally, but they almost could. Some of them can't sing at all, but they like to sing. The ones, the shower singers. [Eve performing; applause] [Gamble-Booth] Ava Williams also knows her piano bars. She's been playing from coast to coast for over

30 years. Tonight she's doing what she does best at Hobo's Inn. [Ava Williams] So many people sit and perform and they don't include, they sing through people instead of singing to them, and that's what it's all about if you're going to be a performer and you want to sing, you sing to people not over them or through them. [Man] There's a uniqueness about a piano bar performer that they truly are entertainers, They both have to have a skill of being able to play exceptionally well, also a time sing but converse and be a part of a, of one big party and that's the party that exists every evening in the lounge with a piano bar. [Piano music] [Gamble Booth] You don't usually find piano bar players as young as Jim's Shraeder. He's only been in the business for about five years. ?Shraeder? plays regularly, here at Wilf's at Union Station. [?Shraeder?] It's the kind of job where you can make a party atmosphere

It's not like you have to be super showman, you just sit there and ask them what they want, and you just play the songs they want. It's different than just being on a stage. It's being among them and I think that's the whole secret is that you're right with them. [singing and piano] [man] It's been absolutely great for us, just absolutely great. [Man] People come in to my house and they say, "how come you have so many customers?" and I say well, they kinda like this thing. Cuz, we're quiet, we're intimate, we're - you know, you don't have to really assert yourself, and you can relax and enjoy it or you can go in and sing along and join the group. [piano, applause] [Gamble-Booth] Piano bars may very well fall into the treasure chest of outdated entertainment along with Vaudeville and the Ziegfeld Follies but if these folks have anything to say about it, piano bars will live on forever and continue to provide a good old tune

And a friend or two. [Woman] I think it's like a living room. It's like coming home, it makes you feel like you haven't left home, I mean, that you, you're not alone sitting in a bar, forgotten. [Man] I think it's It's only right people 10- 15 years from now have an opportunity to continue to enjoy this kind of an environment. There's a lot of art here. [Singing and playing Piano Man] [Gamble Booth] Why the looks of the fun those folks were having. Makes me wish that I had practiced the piano when my mother told me to. Here's a look at what's on the next edition of Front Street Weekly. Many of us practice spirituality once a week at some sort of religious service, but

others spend every waking moment in devotion. We'll examine what may be a spiritual epidemic. And fire-walking: a fad, a therapy, or a hoax? What draws people to it? And what do they get out of it? And you'll see why the 36th year of Salem's art festival was so successful. That's our program for this evening, the first Front Street Weekly for the new fall season. We'll be here next week. We hope you will be too. Good night. [Singing and playing Piano Man] [woman] I think it's like a living room. It's like coming, I mean it makes you feel like you haven't left home I mean that you you're not alone sitting in a bar, forgotten. [man] I think it's you're not alone sitting in a bar, forgotten. [Man] I I think it's, it's only right that people 10-15 years from now have an opportunity to continue to enjoy this kind of an environment. There's a lot of art here. [Piano Man plays] [BRIEF SOUND]