Free Lonny Rae

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NewsMax.com
May 18, 2002
Richard Poe

Did you know that the state of Idaho can send you to prison for saying the "n-word"? Just ask Lonny Rae. He used the "n-word" against a black man who was manhandling his wife. Lonny now faces jail time. The black man who attacked his wife does not.

The "n-word" has been getting lots of press lately, thanks to a New York Times best seller by African-American Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy entitled "N----r: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word."

Unlike me, Kennedy dares to spell out the entire word "n----r." I have to be more careful. If I spelled out "n----r" on my Web site – even for the innocent purpose of, say, reviewing Kennedy's book – there is a slim but real possibility that the term could be flagged in a key-word search, my site blacklisted for "hate speech," and access to it blocked by libraries, "family-friendly" ISPs and other automated cyber-censors.

Penalties for using the "n-word" are mounting daily – even as the word itself has lost much of its sting.

"Used by black people, among themselves, [n----r] is a racial term with undertones of warmth and goodwill," says Clarence Major, quoted in Kennedy's book.

Nowadays, many African-Americans aren't even particularly offended when whites use the word, implies black comedian Chris Rock.

In a New York Times Magazine interview dated Oct. 5, 1997, actor and writer Eric Bogosian – a white liberal – chides Rock for using the "n-word" in his comedy.

" 'N----r' is a heavy-duty word," says Bogosian. "You better have a good reason for using it."

"It's not that heavy-duty," says Rock. "The thing with 'n----r' is just that white people are ticked off because there's something they can't do. That's all it is. 'I'm white, I can do anything in the world. But I can't say that word.' "

Which brings us to Lonny Rae.

On Oct. 28, 2000, tempers flared at a high school football game in Council, Idaho, when out-of-town referees slapped multiple penalties on the home team.

Reporter Kimberly Rae tried to photograph the offending referees for the local paper. But one of them, a black man named Kenneth Manley, lunged at Mrs. Rae, trying to wrestle away her camera, which was strapped around her neck.

"I heard her screaming for help and calling my name," recalls her husband, Lonny. "I ran over there to see what was going on. ... I seen a man draped over my wife, struggling with her."

Manley was a 6' 3" giant, Kimberly a petite 5' 3". The man towered over Lonny by half a foot. Even so, Lonny shoved him backward, shouting and swearing at him.

Manley disappeared into the locker room. After seeing the abrasions on his wife's neck, Rae approached the locker room door.

"Tell that n----r to get out here," Rae shouted, " 'cause I'm a' gonna kick his butt!"

The Raes called 911 and reported the incident. Mrs. Rae was then treated at the hospital.

For six weeks, the Raes heard nothing. Then the police asked Lonny to come down to the station. To his astonishment, he was arrested for malicious harassment – a charge that prosecutors subsequently upgraded to a felony "hate crime," punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Columnist Michael Costello of Idaho's Lewiston Morning Tribune complained, "This charge is a result of a hate crime law passed by the Idaho Legislature possibly to mollify The New York Times. From my perspective, Mr. Rae is simply being offered as a sacrifice on the altar of political correctness. He must be roasted on a spit to prove that the Aryan Nation is not representative of all Idaho."

The media have long vilified Idaho as a hotbed of white separatism.

Thanks to attorney Edgar J. Steele – who is defending Rae pro bono – the felony charges were dismissed in January. But Rae still faces a prison sentence for assault. Steele vows that he will appeal the case "all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary."

Manley – the black man who attacked Mrs. Rae – faces no charges at all, except for a civil suit brought by the Raes.

"Personally, I believe if someone attacks your spouse, you should have the right to call them whatever you want," writes one self-described liberal on my RichardPoe.com message board. I don't often agree with liberals, but in this case, I must make an exception.

Instructions for donating to Rae's defense can be found on Steele's ConspiracyPenPal.com Web site.

See NewsMax's special offer for Richard Poe's latest book, "The Seven Myths of Gun Control."

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Richard Poe is a New York Times best-selling author and cyberjournalist. For more information on Poe and his writings, visit his Web site, RichardPoe.com. He may be reached at richardpoe@aol.com.

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