There’s no innocence in this message

Published 6:00 am Saturday, August 5, 2006

It’s hard to guess what was going through someone’s mind as they spraypainted white supremacist symbols on the underside of a beached dinghy, then scrawled the racist “N” word on a nearby fence.

We’d like to think such vandalism was as mindless as it was thoughtless, the handiwork of a bored kid with no political agenda but who knew which taboos would get a rise out of the community.

But there’s nothing harmless about a message of hate, whether or not it comes with intent. That such vandalism occurred on the property of an island Jewish family, and that a family of color visiting the neighborhood was also greeted by the message, only underscores its intrinsic malice.

For reasons we can’t really fathom, Bainbridge Island has battled such blights for years. In at least two instances in the 1990s, someone placed Aryan Nations literature in crayon boxes on the shelves of a local dime store, vile and angry fliers planted there to be discovered by impressionable youngsters. Hate graffiti has turned up on school grounds and roadways, while defilement of the Port Blakely Cemetery in 2001 prompted a community march against racial intolerance.

Perhaps the most widely remembered tale – and the most cautionary one – took place in 1991, when a young man named Mark carved his name into the pages of island lore. The 20-year-old briefly lived with his girlfriend in a tent in a vacant lot in Winslow, part of a circle of aimless youths circulating around our yet-ungentrified community at that time. No real harm there, except that the self-described “skinhead” also maintained a Winslow post office box under the name “White Aryan Youth.” When racist literature began circulating around the Bainbridge community that autumn, it didn’t take long to connect the dots.

As they would when confronted with similar circumstances a decade later, saddened and disgusted islanders rallied against the hateful messages. Mark moved off the island shortly thereafter, settling in the Olympia area with his beliefs in tow – but that, of course, is not how the story ends. There, in August 1992, in a darkened railroad tunnel, Mark first stabbed repeatedly and then bashed in with a concrete block the skull of an Asian-American youth with whom he’d had a disagreement over racism. Later that night, after a random altercation in a convenience store, Mark used an assault rifle to end the life of a fleeing motorist.

Mark now has plenty of time to contemplate his beliefs and his actions – in the state penitentiary. But his message of hate continues to appear in our midst, sustained by dark thoughts in unknown minds.

We can dismiss the Battle Point graffiti as a puerile prank, a meaningless incident borne of idle youth and summer ennui. But to do so would be to downplay its potential harm, particularly as sectarian violence dominates the news abroad and has even touched Seattle.

As a noted civil rights activist, the late Bill Wassmuth, reminded Bainbridge Island in 1991, we have an obligation – as citizens, parents, educators, clergy, civic leaders, law enforcement officers – to “speak out loudly to set the tone for the community…Silence on the part of community leaders is interpreted as a sign of apathy and gives permission to bigots to continue their activity.”

Consider: Somewhere along the line, someone planted the seeds of hate in Mark’s mind. So don’t gloss over a racist message, Bainbridge Island. Confront it. Discuss it. Denounce it.

Don’t let it take root in the minds and hearts of our young.