Pacifica is about hatred, not freedom.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Daniel Bryant, Justine Lovinger and Michael Williams For The Register Guard

The Anti-Hate Task Force is a diverse group of religious, social justice and government leaders who are alarmed by the anti-Semitic message consistently promoted by Pacifica Forum in its lectures during the past four years. Whether endorsing Holocaust denial, the validity of the anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" or the classic anti-Semitic canard that it is the aim of Jews to dominate the world, many of the Pacifica Forum lectures, in our view, have conveyed messages of hatred, bigotry and intolerance.

Recently, the task force decided it was time to expose Pacifica Forum's hate speech and criticize it publicly. Both The Register-Guard and the Oregon Daily Emerald have noted that recurrent anti-Semitic themes in Pacifica Forum lectures seem to be inconsistent with its purported pacifist agenda.

In a Dec. 5 guest viewpoint, Orval Etter, the founder of Pacifica Forum, defends its anti-Semitic programming as an experiment in free speech. Etter claims that he invited Valdas Anelauskas, an avowed racialist and white separatist, to speak at Pacifica Forum on eight different occasions to test the community's "commitment to free speech."

Anelauskas has defended the scholarship of Holocaust denier David Irving and the teachings of neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce, author of "The Turner Diaries," the book that inspired Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Anelauskas says it is a badge of honor to be labeled an anti-Semite and welcomes being called a Holocaust denier. Etter writes that Pacifica Forum disagrees with some of Anelauskas' bigoted views and that talks have been delivered expressing contrary points of view.

Etter's attempt to play the free speech card to divert attention from Pacifica Forum's anti-Semitic past and distance his group from Anelauskas cannot be taken seriously. Years before Anelauskas was invited to speak, Pacifica Forum sponsored programs that criticized Jews on a racial, religious and ethnic basis. Pacifica Forum programming has been replete with themes that are hostile, negative and derogatory towards Jews. Task force members who regularly monitor these lectures rarely have observed regular Pacifica Forum attendees protest, disagree or condemn this bigotry.

Etter himself has presented a revisionist interpretation of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, when thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed by the Nazis and thousands of Jews were beaten, killed or sent to concentration camps. Etter blamed the victims by presenting the view that the Jews provoked this pogrom.

The question must be asked: Why does Pacifica Forum test the limits of free speech only when the speaker is an avowed racist and the subject matter is anti-Semitic in nature?

The answer is, this is not about free speech at all - it is about the destructive and irresponsible use of speech to denigrate a minority group. Etter's attempt to disguise bigotry as an exercise in intellectual openness and free speech is no less contemptible than former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke's explanation that he attended the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran "to support free speech."

Despite the bigotry espoused by some Pacifica Forum speakers, the Anti-Hate Task Force does not advocate censorship. We believe the First Amendment protects both intelligent and ignorant speech.

The task force will continue to exercise its own right to free speech by holding a mirror to the face of Pacifica Forum bigotry and exposing it, criticizing it and condemning it. We will not lend legitimacy to the hate speech Pacifica Forum sponsors by publicly debating Holocaust deniers, white separatists and conspiracy theorists. We plan to sponsor the appearance in Eugene of nationally known experts on the subjects of racism and anti- Semitism.

We are encouraged that more than 500 citizens signed our statement condemning Pacifica Forum's hate speech, which was published in The Register-Guard on Dec. 11. The Anti-Hate Task Force affirms the statement by Eugene civic leaders, made after the recent discovery of hate graffiti in south Eugene, that "it is important that we all respect each other, honor our differences and strive to become a safe and welcoming community for each and every individual."

The Rev. Daniel Bryant, Justine Lovinger and Michael Williams prepared this column on behalf of the Anti-Hate Task Force of the Community Alliance of Lane County.