Going Online

It is not surprising that Story and Bertollini have created a Web site for their organization. What is more surprising, considering the duo's background in computers, is the fact that their site is so visually and technologically unimpressive. Composed of a single, lengthy page with one graphic, the 11th Hour site reprints the introductory letter from the group's first mailing, nearly the entire Who Are the Real Hate Mongers? letter and a short portion of the Seven Year Tribulation mailing. The two links on the page are to Bertollini's E-mail address, encouraging visitors to write to him with their mailing addresses for a free copy of the Seedline poster.

Bertollini has taken to sending messages electronically. He posted hateful comments to the Spokane Spokesman-Review Web site and forwarded a David Duke press release to numerous recipients via E-mail. In addition, he engaged in a heated discussion about his failed write-in candidacy for the mayoralty of Sandpoint on the electronic Bulletin Board at the Sandpoint Online Web site.

In a public statement posted on that Bulletin Board, Bertollini offered as qualifications his "30 years of High Technology Corporate Executive Management experience," his "unquestionable" fiscal policies and his fairness and honesty in business dealings. This experience might serve a mayor of Sandpoint well, but Bertollini's 16-point platform indicated that he intended to govern by his beliefs. Bertollini declared that, in his administration, "Christian prayer will be restored at all Public Meetings and daily in the Sandpoint School system." In addition, he promised that "Diversity and Multi-Culturalism will be challenged at every front as being wrong and not in the interests of the citizens of Sandpoint." Sandpoint Magazine writer Sandy Compton responded by speaking out against Bertollini and his platform at Sandpoint Online.

Bertollini received only 2 percent of the vote in the November 2, 1999, mayoral election. Replying to criticism from Compton and others, he wrote on the Bulletin Board, "All I really wanted to do was 'show up' to see if anyone was paying attention.... The voters spoke and I was not at all surprised. Everyone is on the wrong subject, as always. It's okay, though. My life doesn't change one iota whether anyone likes it or not. Like the energizer bunny, we just keep on ticking."