Posted on 09/16/2004 7:48:29 AM PDT by esryle
The three Duluth boys say they want to apologize to man for spray painting his lawn signs supporting President Bush.
"We did it."
Three Duluth teenagers walked into the Duluth News Tribune on Wednesday afternoon, opening with these three words. The boys said they were responsible for vandalizing Bush campaign signs and painting a swastika and the word "Nazi" at a London Road residence last weekend.
An hour later, the three boys traveled to the Lakeside-Lester Park police station, where Sgt. Scott Campbell was waiting to talk to them.
The teenagers told the News Tribune they meant no harm to Bob James, the homeowner and Bush-Cheney supporter who erected the signs. They said they spray painted the signs and the swastika on James' sidewalk but had nothing to do with the vandalism of two of James' vehicles.
Friends and supporters of James and the Republican Party of Minnesota had offered a $2,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the vandalism.
While the teenagers were remorseful for what they did to James, they stood by their contempt for President Bush. They said they left a phone message for James on Wednesday and twice went to his house to apologize, but he wasn't home. They planned to try again later Wednesday.
"It was not an act of hate," said Dustin "Dusty" Dzuck, 17, a senior at Denfeld High School. "My mom called me a terrorist. It wasn't terrorism; it was activism. It was for a cause.... The whole thing is, basically, I just wanted to get the word out there that in my opinion Bush isn't doing this country any good."
Dzuck said his actions bothered him more when he learned James is an Army veteran.
Dzuck's two accomplices didn't want to be identified. One said he is a 17-year-old senior at Denfeld and the other said he is a 16-year-old junior at East High School. Both said they are sorry for what they did to James and his property. They called their actions "immature."
James was in no mood to accept an apology when reached Wednesday evening.
"Too little, too late," he said. "At the age of 16, my boys knew what right and wrong were and this is dead wrong. The swastika and Nazism in reference to President Bush or myself is not going to be tolerated."
When asked what he would say to the boys if they visit him, James said: "I'm going to turn them around and send them back to police. Now it's a police matter.... If they were truly remorseful they wouldn't have done it in the first place."
Because it is a juvenile matter, no information regarding the police investigation was available Wednesday.
Dzuck said he did most of the spray painting and admitted that he had vandalized the signs once before, leading James' son, Kyle, to chase him. He tried to explain why he used the swastika and the word "Nazi."
"The connection between the Nazi party was Hitler used nationalism as a way to motivate his cause and we feel that Bush is doing the same thing," he said. "I was really sickened by that. We have no connection to the Nazi party at all. We're anti-fascist and anti-racist."
The three teenagers said they didn't want to be characterized as John Kerry supporters. They said they simply want someone other than Bush to lead the country.
Dzuck said he's a bassist in the Denfeld jazz band and has written articles for the school newspaper.
He said his mother guessed that he was involved after she saw him reading a newspaper account of the vandalism and realized he had stayed at the home of a friend Saturday night. They committed the vandalism about 4 a.m. Sunday.
"This kid came over to my house yesterday with the paper and said, 'Dude, you have to check this out.' " Dzuck said. "My mom came in the room and asked me what we were reading. I told her. She asked if I had anything to do with it. I lied to her and said no.
"Today, I was going to my car at school and noticed my mom in the parking lot. She got in the car and she was like, 'I know it was you.' "
Like many teenagers, Dzuck said he has "kind of a love-hate relationship" with his mother, but he also respects her and credits her for the action he took Wednesday.
"The main thing that drove me to apologize is my mom. Mom has a horrible grasp on me," he said.
It was not an act of hate," said Satam al Suqami, from beyond the grave. "Americans called me a terrorist. It wasn't terrorism; it was activism. It was for a cause.... The whole thing is, basically, I just wanted to get the word out there that in my opinion Americans aren't doing this world any good.")
Well, as long as it's for a cause.
Ditto
However, a baseball bat Louisville Slugger® to the knees works too.
These kids seem to admit to two acts of vandalism. They do not admit to the vandalism of the owner's two cars. You shouldn't be overly thoughtful about this until the matter is resolved. What you might have "thought" when you were a kid does not really matter in this pending criminal case.
In some ways, the boys deserve pity, as they have been "socialized" and deceived, brainwashed if you will, into a hateful, knee-jerk reactionary brand of anarchism. If they are lucky, they will grow up to see the error of their ways and become good and decent citizens. The odds are against them, given the massive indoctrination poisoning the minds of young and old.
Kids that make mistakes like this at 16 have the chance to learn from them. People that wait to make mistakes like this later in life are called 'demonstrators'. See the NYC demonstrations, WTO riots, etc etc etc.
The night of our primary election, a couple of junior high neighbor kids came to our door, asking if we had any extra W '04 stickers they could put on their book covers. We gave them some to hand out to their friends, also. They said their publik skool teacher was explaining the primary system & told them, "We have two major parties...the Republicans and the Good Guys."
Rat-bastage @$$-clowns!
Don't kids learn wonderful things in public school?
I know in S.Florida there are groups that were counting vandalizing Bush signs as "fun".
This is actually a very revealing statement - it is at the core of extremism and is one thing that makes extremist activities so very attractive to the young, who are constitutionally prone to acts of violence anyway. Many never do grow out of it.
What I'm talking about is the sense of moral absolution that devotion to a Cause brings to its adherents, a sense of release from the stricture of society's rules - "activism" in this sense represents freedom of action uninhibited by rules that the actor would be horrified not to have protecting himself or herself. In this sense most "activists" are hypocrites of the first order.
"I'm an activist - I'm special - the rules don't apply to me." It isn't just the left, but that's where you find most of it these days.
Assuming there is a bright side...
Assuming there is a bright side...
"So, is Nazism the only thing kids learn about in history class these days?"
Naa, they also learn about the interrment of Japanese-Americans during the same period. Some even study the evils of the Christian crusaders and how they devestated the poor innocent peace-loving muslims. (Do I really need a sarcasm tag here?)
What Sowell personifies is crucial to an understanding of education; one does not learn life's great lessons in a formal setting, they are learned from experience, patience and studied listening.
nice POS bump
Good question. I would add: McCarthyism.
the youths just got hired onto the kerry campaign
"As part of their punishment these kids should have wrote an essay on the Nazi party and explain what National SOCIALISM was about."
Really these kids are spouting off exactly what they have been taught in the public school system.
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