Alt-right shadow hangs over Whitefish
Last edited Thu Dec 29, 2016, 11:10 AM - Edit history (2)
@DailyInterLake Kalispell
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Alt-right shadow hangs over Whitefish
Posted: Saturday, December 17, 2016 7:00 pm | Updated: 7:10 pm, Sat Dec 17, 2016.
By LYNNETTE HINTZE Daily Inter Lake
[font size=1]Matt Baldwin / Whitefish Pilot
22 Lupfer Avenue
The mixed-use building at 22 Lupfer Ave., in Whitefish.[/font]
The national spotlight that continues to illuminate white nationalist leader Richard Spencer and his alt-right movement also has put Whitefish in the limelight in ways that are uncomfortable not only for the towns residents but also Spencers own parents.
Spencer is at the helm of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist nonprofit think-tank and publishing firm. For years Spencer, 38, has been a part-time Whitefish resident, though he spends most of his time now on the East Coast. His parents, Rand and Sherry Spencer, continue to spend time in Whitefish and Sherry owns a commercial building in the citys historic Railway District.
Spencers parents wrote a letter to the Whitefish community that is published today in the Inter Lakes opinion section. They say Sherrys mixed-use building at 22 Lupfer Ave., and its retail tenants have been targeted because of their sons white nationalist viewpoints.
Our tenants are innocent victims and their businesses are threatened with boycotts for something over which they have no control. There is no justification for their sustaining collateral damage, they stated in their letter. We, too, are victims, having no role in any of the events that have unfolded recently.