Racial vandalism at Martin Downs shows the worst our community has to offer | Opinion

I, for one, am glad to have Stanley Campbell as a neighbor.

While he was a student at Florida A&M University, Campbell worked on a project to map out an optimal course for the Voyager 2 spacecraft. So he was a rocket scientist at a very young age.

He didn't rest on his laurels, though. Since college, he served as a Navy pilot for more than eight years. He was a member of NASA's executive advisory board for a while.

The company he founded developed artificial intelligence software that led to the capture of Dennis Rader, the notorious "BTK" serial killer convicted of 10 murders over three decades.

After a long career of protecting our country against enemies foreign and domestic, Campbell bought the Martin Downs Golf Club in Palm City about a year and a half ago.

Oh yeah, Campbell also happens to be Black.

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His skin color didn't prevent him from having an illustrious career, but some local yahoos apparently have a problem with it.

Over the New Year's weekend, vandals spray-painted slurs disparaging Black and Jewish people, as well as sexually explicit images, in a tunnel on the golf course. An employee discovered their handiwork early the morning of Jan. 2.

Many of us have said or done things during New Year's celebrations that we later regretted, but this takes that concept to a whole new level. A much lower, stupider level.

It wasn't an isolated incident, anyway. Campbell said there have been other acts of vandalism on the course since he took ownership of it.

The Martin County Sheriff's Office is investigating, but Campbell said he has mixed feelings about the perpetrators being brought to justice. If they are, they would most likely be charged with hate crimes, which would pretty much destroy their futures.

Campbell said if the vandals are underage kids, this mistake could ruin their lives before they've barely started. If they turn themselves in to Campbell, he said he would try "to make lemonade out of lemons" by having a talk with them about race relations and putting them to work on a course cleanup crew.

Campbell believes more than one person was involved, because there were at least two distinct sets of spray-paint footprints left at the scene. No one is assuming this was the work of criminal masterminds.

For that matter, who in their right mind would target a guy who helped bring down a notorious serial killer? As Forrest Gump said: "Stupid is as stupid does."

Campbell said he isn't interested in using his AI software to catch the miscreants in this case, although I kind of wish he would. Justice wouldn't get any more poetic than that.

Instead, he's focused on running a golf course where people of all races and creeds are welcome.

Provided they are willing to follow the country club's rules. For example, golfers must wear collared shirts and remove their caps inside the club buildings. While golf has a legacy of being primarily a white person's sport, Campbell is hoping to change that image.

"We want to be open, we want to be inclusive, we want everyone to feel welcome," he said.

By the way, there are only about a dozen Black-owned golf courses in the United States. African American Golfer's Digest lists 10, although other sources put the total slightly higher.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan owns the ultra-exclusive Grove XXIII golf course in Hobe Sound, which means Martin County is home to two of those Black-owned courses.

That should be a source of community pride ― and, in most people's eyes, I think it is. Martin County residents should want to have a reputation of being welcoming and inclusive.

That reputation is still a work in progress, though. We're less than a year removed from an incident that drew national publicity when six students posed for a photo outside Hidden Oaks Elementary School, holding letters that spelled out a racial slur.

After the photo appeared on social media, there was a public outcry that included the students being mocked on "Saturday Night Live." The Martin County School District levied punishments against the students that were never publicly disclosed. One of the students apologized at a rally organized by the local chapter of the NAACP.

Jimmy Smith, president of the local NAACP chapter, told me last week there were no immediate plans for a rally in this case.

"We're trying to allow the investigation to run its course," Smith said. "Hopefully, they'll nip it in the bud."

Like Campbell, Smith said he would rather focus on progress that has been made in race relations over the last few decades, rather than allowing incidents like the Martin Downs vandalism to define who and where we are as a society.

"Most white people in America are against that stuff," Smith said.

Meanwhile, the NAACP is making plans for its annual fundraising gala, which will be held March 11 at the Marriott Hutchinson Island Beach Resort, Golf & Marina.

The keynote speaker at that event will be Cheryl Campbell, assistant secretary for administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also happens to be Stanley Campbell's wife.

Thankfully, neither Stanley or Cheryl Campbell are going to let a few nitwits deter them from continuing their lives of service to their community.

"We're too busy having fun to get distracted," Stanley Campbell said. "We just want people to come have fun with us."

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at blake.fontenay@tcpalm.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Racial vandalism at Martin Downs like a drive into sandtrap | Opinion