There are two Save Our States. I came to realize this after I had been a member for about 6 weeks (back in '06).
There is the message board Save Our State and there is the real world SOS. The two overlap about 20%. In my experience, the former is commonly where the "trouble" or most pronounced extremism comes from. Usually there is a collection of people who post and are rarely or never seen at rallies and other functions. Their SOS existence is limited to the internet. On the rare occasions I've heard white supremacist sentiments or Anti-Semitism from my fellow border security advocates, it has come from folks who never show their faces, march down hostile streets, get behind police barricades, patrol a day labor site or stand in the rain waving signs at passing traffic.
Most people whose activism is limited to internet discussions are not extremists or embarrassments. But for as long as I can recall, there has always been a vocal minority of SOS folks who flame, engage in hate speech, mouth sentiments out-of-step with opinions of most SOS members, and generally take full advantage of the cocoon of anonymity that internet message boards offer.
I can recall people openly discussing potential alliances with skinheads when "fighting in the streets breaks out." I distinctly remember two individuals getting upset with things I wrote, and then reading posts about Jews only being loyal to "their own kind," not trusting "goyim," and using the immigration issue to "divide patriots." Further, the most vile anti-Hispanic rhetoric I've seen on our website (past and present) has always come from people I've never met.
Insofar as the dozens of events I've attended in So. California, I've never gotten so much as a whiff that the people with whom I was protesting possessed racial animosity, ethnic bigotry or had boiled the immigration debate down to a skin color contest. Border Raven, AmericanPatriot77, Ray and Robin, JeanfromFillmore, Ole Glory, Foothillpages.com, PochoPatriot, Lupe, Watchdog, OldPreach, GSBAmerica, Jalira, Weasel, Tim55, Borderwatch, Kingfish, TheBob ... hell, even Chelene. I know the people who have taken public stands and engaged in SOS activism. They're not racists. I've worked and appeared with these folks repeatedly. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is that we live in a free expression driven country and tolerate most types of speech in our everyday lives and on our boards. Resultingly, a small percentage of it is going to be ugly and not reflect accurately upon the organization. If I thought any of the things described in the 4th paragraph (above) were accurate depictions of my cohorts on the streets, I'd have bailed out of SOS a long time ago.
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