Lewis & Clark County Justice of the Peace Mike Swingley weighed in last week on the future of Helena's Confederate Memorial Fountain, urging the two city commissioners who are pushing for rededication of the monument to "start focusing on your real job."
"Shame on you both," Swingley wrote in an email last week to Commissioners Katherine Haque-Hausrath and Andres Haladay.
He suggested that a logical extension of the move to rededicate or otherwise alter the fountain would be to also remove other potentially offensive items.
"If you want to cleanse Helena of of the items that offend the sensitive, I request that you remove the Arabic writing from inside the Civic Center," he wrote. "It reminds me of the Arabic writing on the flag of ISIS and as 99.9% of the terrorist (sic) in the world have turned out to be Islamic fundamentalist and Arab speaking, it offends me that Helena would allow such a symbol."
Reached Monday by telephone, Swingley said he had received numerous notes of support since his email was described on the Montana Cowgirl blog. He said the words had been taken out of context.
Haque-Hausrath says the comments are troubling even in context, and judges need to avoid even an appearance of bias.
"Judge Swingley's statements are deeply troubling because they exhibit such a clear bias toward Arabic and Muslim people that there is no way anyone who might even appear to be Arabic or Muslim could be confident about getting a fair trial in his courtroom," she wrote in an email to MTN News.
While Swingley may have been trying to make an absurd example of over-reaction to offensive materials, Haque-Hausrath says there's reason to believe he was serious in what he said about Arabs and Muslims.
"Even if Judge Swingley does not actually want to remove the Arabic writing from the Civic Center, he exhibited clear bias toward Arabic and Muslim people when he said that (he) considers them to be synonymous with terrorism," she wrote. "Regardless of whether Judge Swingley was trying to tell a joke, or he was under a lot of stress, or had a hard childhood, it is completely unacceptable for a sitting judge to espouse racist views in an official public record."
Swingley said any suggestion he's a racist is ridiculous and that he's always treated all people fairly in his court. He said that when he was a Montana Highway Patrol trooper based in Hardin for three years, he got along very well with the people of the Crow Indian Nation.
"I have a very diverse background working with native Americans and that blood runs through my veins," Swingley wrote in an email to Haladay. "I will always stand up for others, race is not a factor in my thinking, ever. Common sense is."
The low-key Confederate Monument, off Park Avenue in Hill Park, was given to the city by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1916, in tribute to Confederate soldiers.
Haque-Hausrath likens the monument the to the Confederate flag and said it was installed as part of a nationwide propaganda effort to improve the reputation of the Confederacy. Swingley disagrees.
"Finally, I suggest you both learn more about the town you live in and the history of it," Swingley wrote in the email. "The truth is, Helena is a great place to live, with virtually no racism, and despite a beginning that was heavily influenced by confederates, old Helena had more than 2000 ex slaves who moved here, lived and worked successfully. That fountain is a symbol of success and a town that shaped itself as a melting pot of all, ex confederates and ex-union, plus Chinese, native Americans, ex-slaves and many more, including foreign nationals of Ireland, Germany, etc.,"
Swingley also said he the commission should focus instead on mental health issues, methamphetamine, sidewalks, streets, water lines, and police and fire resources.
"Your efforts are misguided," he wrote. "There is no issue with Helena Montana with race wars, no Nazi White fundamentalist, no problems that raise issue with this ridiculous idea. It is an attempt at getting in the spotlight with an idea to show how sensitive the commission is to the issues. I do not believe the commission has the power or position to be the political, ethical and moral think take of Helena. I suggest you start focusing on your real job."
Haladay responded to Swingley, discussing his about city issues one by one but not directly addressing Swingley's comments about Muslims or the Confederacy.
In his original email and again in his reply to Haladay, Swingley lamented the loss of Helena's historic character.
"I watched as a child while the Marlowe Theater was destroyed (and) the downtown area changed forever during urban renewal," he wrote to Haladay. "Few truly historic items remain in Helena that have not been destroyed, moved, changed or rewritten."
He also repeated his call for improvements in tackling the problems of mental illness and methamphetamine.
"As you are fully aware, the mental illness is not only uncontrolled, but intimately connected to the drug and alcohol issues er face," he wrote. "It is time to rethink and retool our approach."
The City Commission last week charged the City-County Heritage Tourism Council to come up with a proposal for a rededication and possible new signage for the fountain. It could be a few months before that seven-person council makes its recommendation.
Swingley's full email is below:
Commissioners,
I have to say, I have been disappointed by the City Commission in the past. I spent my entire life in Helena and watched as the commission and Urban Renewal committee tore down buildings and reshaped Helena forever. Much of our history was lost in that debacle and Helena has never been the same.
Keep in mind that slavery was only one issue that caused the Civil War. The largest portion was economic based war as the southern states wanted to separate and begin printing their own currency, and detach from the banks of the United States.
Today I read of the Commission's issue with the fountain in Hill Park and I am, once again frustrated on many points. First, Dylan Roof was a mentally ill man who committed a heinous act in South Carolina and had obviously aligned his beliefs with the confederate flag and the race issues in the south. The key here is mental illness. The knee jerk reaction to this by the commission is unacceptable and misguided. If you want to tackle the issue at hand, start dealing with the rampant mental illness issues in Helena and the lack of resources to deal with them.
Further, Helena has a multitude of issues that the commission is not talking about. Streets are in disrepair, water lines breaking, Fire and Law Enforcement are in need of more resources, and a recent article focused on the lack of funds for basic maintenance issues in Helena. My own children have to walk in the street to school because there are no sidewalks on Hauser Blvd where we live and the City has allowed the residents to landscape the city right of way to the point that you can't even walk unless you are on the street. The meth issue is absolutely killing Helena. I have never heard the Commission even speaking the words "meth" or "mental Illness". Fix these things first before your non-issue.
Second, the fountain in Hill Park is a memorial placed by the daughters of the confederacy, in honor of their fathers. It is not possible to separate the history of Helena from the ex-confederate soldiers and their influence here. Helena was discovered by four individuals, at least two of whom were ex-confederates.
The four Georgians, D.J. Miller, Reginald Stanley, John Cowan and John Crabb, started the gold digs here and subsequently the town. Half or more of the miners were from the southern states. White's City, a ghost town east of Helena is located in Confederate Gulch. The fact is that
Helena was heavily influenced and started by them. If you want to cleanse Helena of all Confederate influence, you will need to rename several schools in Helena, including Four Georgians Elementary, several streets, tear down the Montana Club which was started by the wealthy ex-confederate gold miners and had black servants working there, and much more.
Your efforts are misguided. There is no issue in Helena Montana with race wars, no Nazi White fundamentalist, no problems that raise issue to this ridiculous idea. It is an attempt at getting in the spotlight with an idea to show how sensitive the commission is to the issues. I do not believe the commission has the power or position to be the political, ethical and moral think tank of Helena. I suggest you start focusing on your real job.
Third, if you want to cleanse Helena of the items that offend the sensitive, I request that you remove the Arabic writing from inside the Civic Center. It reminds me of the Arabic writing on the flag of ISIS and as 99.9% of the terrorist in the world have turned out to be Islamic fundamentalist and Arabic speaking, it offends me that Helena would allow such a symbol. I realize that the history of the Civic Center was that of a Masonic/Shriner's temple, that aligned themselves with the far east and had a large Arabic influenced theme.
But if we are going to rewrite and ignore the facts of history, we need to be fair and remove that symbolism as that conflict is still active and Christians like me are being killed daily by Arabic speaking fundamentalist who show those characters on their flag.
Finally, I suggest you both learn more about the town you live in and the history of it. The truth is, Helena is a great place to live, with virtually no racism, and despite a beginning that was heavily influenced by confederates, old Helena had more than 2000 ex slaves who moved here, lived and worked successfully.
That fountain is a symbol of success and a town that shaped itself as a melting pot of all, ex confederates and ex-union, plus Chinese, native Americans, ex-slaves and many more, including foreign nationals of Ireland, Germany, etc.
Shame on you both. And before you accuse me of being pro-confederate, I will inform you that my ancestors ALL served with the North in the Civil War and two of my ancestors served in Anderson Ville Prison. My family came to Montana in covered wagons and I have spent my entire adult life as a trooper and now judge defending and protecting all, regardless of their race, religion, political affiliation, etc.....
Respectfully,
Mike
