I’ve received a few emails from several of you regarding a national news story that broke shortly after Thanksgiving. Several of you have asked if I know anything about the murder that occurred in Pend Oreille County-one that seemed impossible to believe. To hear about that event seems something that should have come straight out of a horror flick.

For those of you that have been up to my place over the years, I’m sure the location mentioned on CNN sounded pretty familiar. And it was. Although the crime occurred about 20 miles down river from where I write this, it’s the kind of thing that isn’t supposed to happen in such a beautiful place as this.

Even now, a few days later, the gruesome details remain fairly sketchy. The little that I do know goes something like this: Thanksgiving weekend two hunting parties got into some sort of altercation. It is believed that at least two of the people in the parties knew one another, that alcohol was involved, but regardless of who did what to whom, the end result translated into a brutal and violent murder- A 20 year old man was tied around the neck, hooked to a pickup truck and drug 13 miles to his death. All this happened on the road I live off of. It took three highway department trucks, dumping sand on the road, to cover the remains of that act. None of the hoodlums involved are locals.

I really didn’t know what to write about this- an event that simply boggles one’s ability to comprehend the shifty nature of the human condition. Once again northern Idaho and northeastern Washington will get this undeserved reputation for being a hostile place, and yet time after time, when we do make the headlines, whether its for Ruby Ridge or the shoot out occurring a few years back at the Sportsman’s Tavern in Oldtown, Idaho and now this, the accounts we read seem surreal. This isn't who we are.

We are a live and let live county. There are so many good, down to earth people that live in Pend Oreille County. Yet because of our rugged location, we are a natural draw for idiots from elsewhere with something to prove. You know the profile-the wanna-be real men types with a never been off road, lifted 4x4, who have spent a little too much time lost in Cabela’s and who can’t handle their booze.

Regardless of “their” origins, whenever visitors get into trouble, it’s our local community that always steps up. Assisting the endless invasion of folks from other places, this community comes together every time tragedy strikes. Our search and rescue department, the sheriff’s Department, and local resident volunteers willingly risk their lives, and spend hundreds of hours each year compensating for the ill thought behavior of our visitors. They search for lost hunters deep into the high bush country in fall. They track stranded back country skiers in the winter. They search the river for young drowning victims in the summer. All year long they deal with possible confrontations with armed drug runners who seem to think we offer the easiest way to get contraband across the US/Canadian Border. Now these dedicated servants have to somehow scrub their minds of the images of a young man slaughtered on one of the most beloved routes in the county.

We are a huge county of less than 12,000 people. Our local first responder and sheriff’s budget strains to meet the needs of all those thousands who visit our stunning country. Now with this senseless murder, and the subsequent trial coming in March, there will be another major emotional and financial burden thrown on our community. The national press usually salivates over stories like this-and the theme is always the same. “Look at them ignorant hicks killing each other as only barbarians would.” It's always a story couched in convenient us verses them language.

Laramie, Wyoming got a taste of that when Matthew Shepard was crucified on a barb wire fence. The town of Laramie did not kill Matt. A couple idiots did. Yet the whole community continues to endure this national shame. They’ve made plays about it, they’ve come from all over the country to hold candlelight vigils, and even after all these years, that one event is what most people think about when they think about Laramie.

A small community in Texas was treated to more of the same when a black man was drug to his death behind a pick up truck.

Plenty of horrible, outrageous, ugly, inhumane things happen everyday in New York, L. A. and Miami, yet rarely does the press focus much energy on those tales.

I hope a repeat of the Laramie Project mentality doesn’t happen here.

So as we are trying to make sense of something that is just about as far beyond understanding as anything in life gets, the rest of the world will be trying to set itself at ease about us. I worry that once again our region will be written off as a bunch of out-of-control survivalist whacko’s. I pray that these misguided stereotypes about Washington's Outback won't prevail.

Meanwhile we remain shocked. Our small town innocence is shattered. Even though once again it's through no fault of our own, I suppose we'll find ourselves on the news asked to explain the unexplainable during the trial. And yet, even in the midst of the headlines, we'll still prepare for the next seasons onslaught, the next wave of hunters, boaters, tourists, and skiers.

We'll be waiting to welcome friends we haven't made yet from everywhere else. Waiting for strangers that we gladly welcome to our clean air, our broad waters, and live and let live county. Waiting for time to ease this burden from our hearts and minds.