Arlington stands tall

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, March 27, 2004

ARLINGTON — Barbara Troha lives miles away from the Arlington home where someone burned a cross on the lawn early Wednesday morning.

But the Stanwood woman felt compelled to be among the hundreds of people who marched through Arlington Saturday afternoon, then held a rally in support of the black family that lives in that home.

"If it happens here and they get away with it, it will be in my community as well," Troha, 63, said as she carried a cardboard sign that said, "Say No to Hate." "There are bigots everywhere."

The march was one of two Saturday to protest the cross burning at the home of Pastor Jason Martin. Earlier Saturday afternoon, more than 150 residents of the Gleneagle neighborhood in Arlington where the Martin family lives held a half-mile procession that ended at the Martins’ front door.

Students from Post Middle School thought up the late-afternoon march, which began at the school and ended with a rally at Legion Memorial Park in downtown Arlington. At least half of the several hundred marchers were children and teenagers.

"We will not tolerate hate in our community," Post Middle School student Michael Keating, 14, told the crowd. "We will not look the other way when something like this happens."

Gary Howard, a former teacher at Arlington High School and founder of a diversity program there, asked, "What is the true face of Arlington? Is the true face of Arlington hatred and bigotry and ignorance? No, the true face of Arlington is the face that is here today."

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon said the several hundred people who protested the hate crime sent a strong message to the perpetrators.

"Those who sought to strike fear in the Martin household have failed," he said. "What they did do was bring a community together."

When Mayor Margaret Larson introduced Martin, the crowd cheered and whooped and clapped.

"We love you, Jason," several people shouted.

After thanking the crowd, Martin and two of his sons, Tyshaun and Isaac, sent their own message to whoever burned the symbol of hate on their front lawn. It wasn’t a message of anger or revenge, but of love.

"I forgive them, Lord, I forgive them," Jason Martin sang.

Tyshaun Martin, 17, said he has been deluged with support from fellow students. On Thursday, students presented him with a poster with dozens of signatures and sentiments such as, "We care."

"It seems like a small percentage are racist people, because when most people found out about this, they were upset and mad," he said. "There’s more love than hate in this community."

But Tyshaun Martin said 30 to 50 students at the high school belong to or sympathize with a loosely organized group that calls itself the Hicks. It’s from those students that he hears a racial slur — usually under their breath as they walk past him — just about every day. And he believes members of the group were the ones who scrawled racist graffiti on a wall in the high school gym last year.

Last fall, Tyshaun Martin said, about 20 students from the group followed him and about 10 of his friends — most of them white or Latino — and repeatedly shouted racial slurs as they walked to a football game.

Some dangled a noose in an apparent mimicking of a racial lynching. The two groups almost came to blows before security guards and school officials got between them, he said.

Tyshaun Martin said members of the group threatened to wait for him outside the stadium as he left the game. He got a ride home to avoid any problems.

Before he began attending Arlington High School a year and a half ago, Tyshaun Martin attended Marysville-Pilchuck High School. He said he never heard racial slurs during the year he was there.

Another black student, Kadiff Bible, 14, said he also regularly hears racial slurs at Arlington High School. In one incident, a member of the loosely affiliated group the Hicks had a concealed knife, he said.

His foster mother, Yvonne Ito, said she complained to school officials about that incident, but the school apparently did not punish the student or take away his knife.

Ito said the school should have taken a harder line against members of the group. She is convinced that if a group of black kids were to form a similar group, school officials would be very aggressive in stopping any racist actions.

Arlington High School is not the only school in the city with complaints of racial tension. Tyshaun Martin’s brothers, Isaac, 12, and Micah, 11, said they often hear racial slurs at Pioneer Elementary School.

Arlington resident Mary Kay Larson wants to make sure her child never forms racist opinions. As she walked just after noon through the Gleneagle neighborhood to support the Martin family, Larson’s husband, B.J., walked beside her with their 3-year-old son Noah on his shoulders.

"He’s too young to understand this, but he needs to know that we all need to be openly supportive of everyone, no matter where they come from, no matter what their race, religion or whatever," Mary Kay Larson said.

As the procession arrived at the Martins’ door, a beaming Jason Martin greeted them with, "Wow, you guys are awesome."

After residents walked up to the pastor one-by-one to shake his hand, hug him, pat him on the back or hand him flowers, he thanked them. He then led them in the Lord’s Prayer and "God Bless America."

Jason Martin said he is convinced that Arlington is not a racist city.

"This is the community I’ve always thought it is: a loving, caring, friendly community," he said as the last of the marchers left. "To see the community out here today reaffirms what I’ve always believed in my heart."

Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com