When I asked for help from readers to better understand why neo-Nazis wanted to demonstrate for white civil rights in West Allis this weekend, Arno Michaels responded.
Michaels, 40, works as an information technology consultant and has plenty of credibility on this issue.
For years, Michaels was a leading white supremacist in Milwaukee, an avowed skinhead and leader of a popular heavy metal band known for hateful lyrics about minorities and gays that gained a wide following.
Michaels left the white supremacist movement in the mid-1990s after realizing the troubling impact the lifestyle would have on his young daughter, then 2.
"I was worried about where I was headed," said Michaels, who seemed like any normal white guy with an abundance of tattoos if you didn't know much about his past.
"I lost two friends to street violence. I understood the way I was going, prison was going to take me from my daughter."
Michaels lived with a community of skinheads in Milwaukee from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, usually in cheap housing in the Riverwest neighborhood, the south side or near the central city. His band of fellow white supremacists took pride in denigrating African-Americans, Latinos, gays and any nonwhite group.
The harassment sometimes included assaults.
Michaels said his initial attraction to the skinhead movement as a young man was "just to piss people off. Whenever I wore a 'White Power' T-shirt, I knew people didn't like it. That was my motivation."
Eventually, the lifestyle of heavy drinking and fighting other skinheads became more disruptive.
But the bottom line was watching his young daughter play with classmates of other races and realizing the kind of world she deserved.
"I knew I wanted something better for her."
These days, Michaels is a social activist who works to promote understanding between races with a personal memoir - "My Life After Hate" - and an online magazine called lifeafterhate.org where he publishes articles about racial harmony with like-minded partners.
Breaking away from the white supremacist movement was difficult but necessary for him to escape the pervasive mentality that demanded he hate other groups.
"I just realized how much better it felt leaving all that behind," he said.
With the neo-Nazi rally planned for Saturday afternoon in West Allis, Michaels has been involved with various groups planning a counter-demonstration. He warned that some neo-Nazis were probably hoping scuffles would break out with counter-demonstrators.
"When you're in the neo-Nazi movement, any publicity is good publicity," he said.
He believes recent trouble with black youths in Milwaukee and West Allis has allowed hate groups to use the fear of black-on-white violence as a rallying cry.
"Their main objective is to spark a race war," he said. "That's the ultimate goal."
Personal experience has taught Michaels the futility of holding such extreme views. In fact, he said he hoped nobody would be hurt at the rally, including the neo-Nazis.
"You can't fight hate and violence with more hate and violence," he said.
Chances are, in another life, those words would have never escaped from his lips.
That just might prove there's hope for everybody.
