Between the Lines -- Byron de Arakal

Eric Weller sat in my living room last week positively oscillating

with a determined energy. The Newport Harbor High School junior --

repulsed by the creeping proliferation on campus of symbols clearly

resembling the marks of Hitler’s Nazi Germany -- was sharing plans he and

classmates Brandon Marshall and Wes Pohlmann had mapped out in their

offensive to uproot the sprouting ensigns of the Third Reich.

I told him he had a lot of guts. I didn’t tell him that I feared for

his safety. There is, after all, danger in breaking down the closet door

of people’s hearts without warning. When challenging deep primal fears

and base antipathies of ethnicities and faiths and cultures. And in the

foray of these three admirable young men, I worried that those fears and

antipathies would tumble from the closets. Would jade their consciences

and harm their persons.

I could tell Weller knew all of that, but it was of no import to him.

The greater weight on his mind was the memory of hanging out with a few

of his Latino buddies. Of witnessing how they were set upon by a pack of

young white men tossing out straight-armed salutes and hailing Hitler. Of

how they fled from these goons who took up a chase of these lads in

pickup trucks trailing American flags.

He was thinking back, too, of the verbal mugging he had witnessed of a

Pakistani student on campus in the early days of blinding nationalism

following the savagery of Sept. 11.

These were the sporadic eruptions of hatred that punctuated Weller’s

yearlong awareness of the mushrooming numbers of Iron Crosses and “SS”

logos showing up on the T-shirts and backpacks of his Sailor peers.

Those who bore them, Weller noted, seemed dulled to the history of

Hitler’s evil. Others, he theorized, were simply lemmings of the latest

fashion fad cooked up by the skateboard clothing and equipment

manufacturers who -- wonting for even a crumb of judgment -- emblazoned

these trademarks on their products. But his worst fear, he shared, was

that some who bore them also swore allegiance to the symbols’ dark

underbelly of ethnic and religious hatred.

So Weller, Marshall and Pohlmann hatched their plot to protest and

educate and shame. And as their initiative has unfolded, the contents of

hearts are being revealed.

The three launched their campaign on a shoestring budget, arming

themselves with pens and scads of stick-on name tags on which they

scribbled the message: “Stop the Hate.” They fanned out across campus,

distributing the tags like so many business cards at a chamber mixer.

Many proudly wore them, Weller said. Some wore several. One student, he

noted, tacked them on from head to toe. Still others volunteered to help

pass them around. Hearts revealed.

But as buoyed as he was by the affirmation of his peers who bore the

badges, his blood simmered at the sight of some who scratched over

Weller’s message for another. “Keep the Hate” is the way they read. More

hearts revealed.

Determined, Weller, Marshall and Pohlmann hatched the flier campaign

reported by the Daily Pilot on Tuesday. The circular published visuals of

the Nazi Iron Cross. Of the jagged SS that was the ensign of Hitler’s

Schutzstaffel. It laid these symbols alongside the product marks of

Independent (a skateboard trucks manufacturing company), Johnny Suede (a

clothing manufacturer) and Silver Star Casting Co., a Costa Mesa-based

ring and clothing fabricator. And you didn’t have to squint to see the

obvious similarities.

After nailing down the support of Principal Michael Vossen in a powwow

on Friday, the trio swamped the Newport Harbor High campus with 3,000

leaflets on Monday. Weller said the number of students who said they

hadn’t a clue that the symbols were crests of Hitler’s reign of terror

surprised him. Still, that one student -- after reading the circular --

removed a Johnny Suede sticker from her backpack encouraged him. Another

heart revealed.

Indeed, many were. Weller, Marshall and Pohlmann spent the day

spreading their word amid encouragement and, less so, shouted chants of

“white pride.” Silver Star Casting Co. announced its decision Monday to

yank its offending logo from its products. Independent said it would be

keeping its Iron Cross-like trademark, claiming it’s derived from a cross

that adorns the robe of Pope John Paul II (a dubious comparison these

days). Johnny Suede brushed off the entire controversy with crass

commercialism.

“We’re doing these designs because people don’t buy the flowered stuff

anymore,” he rationalized. “These kids want something a little more

hard.”

And so it seems. “I knew it was a symbol of hate,” said one Newport

Harbor freshman whose backpack bore the red Iron Cross of the Independent

company. “But I like the brand.”

Jeez.

* Byron de Arakal is a freelance writer and communications advisor. He

resides in Costa Mesa. He column appears Wednesdays. Readers can reach

him with news tips and comments via e-mail at o7 [email protected]

. Visit his Web site at o7 www.byronwriter.comf7 .