Why was a reference to the Nazis included in Lakewood art piece? Good question | Opinion

Lakewood’s newest public art installation — the Gateway Arcs, which was installed in January near the entrance of Colonial Plaza on Motor Avenue — is intended to be a celebration of the city’s history, diversity and everything that makes living in Lakewood special, according to city officials.

Instead, what city spokesperson Brynn Grimley described this week as an unintentional oversight has shifted the focus entirely, creating an unexpected social media uproar while inflicting harm and fresh trauma that’s unlikely to be easily soothed.

The installation, commissioned in 2021 for $140,000, includes 112 “stories” submitted by Lakewood residents, responding to the question, “What do you love about Lakewood?” But on Monday, a local Twitter user took to the platform to note that one of the submissions included in the piece — which attributes the atrocities and ethnic cleansing committed by Nazi forces under Adolf Hitler to socialism — clearly has no place on public display.

“Every evil thing the Nazis did was a direct result of their socialist beliefs and socialist policies,” reads the entry reads, which is etched into aluminum.

According to Grimley, the city wasn’t aware that the new Gateway Arcs, which is the work of Seattle artist John Fleming, included the words until Twitter users brought it to Lakewood’s attention early this week. Plans are already in place to have it removed prior to an official ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for Saturday, she said.

After the city was made aware of the entry, three other potentially hurtful submissions were identified, which will also be removed this week, Grimley indicated. One proclaims Jesus is “the only true God,” while another has the potential to offend Native and Indigenous populations, she said.

In a statement provided to The News Tribune, the city of Lakewood apologized for the mistake and said that the entry that references Nazis and socialism “does not align with the theme (of the artwork) or with our values.”

“We value and celebrate our diverse community. We apologize for any harm that was caused by inclusion of this statement on the art piece. We will continue to lift the voices of our community and celebrate what we love about living in Lakewood, and invite others to join us in these efforts,” the statement indicated.

Of course, the obvious question remains: How could something like this happen? I mean, really.

Regardless of how you feel about socialism, the remarkable stupidity of allowing such a harmful and historically inaccurate sentiment to be emblazoned on public art is simply mind-boggling, given the clear potential it has to alienate Pierce County’s Jewish population while also marring the public unveiling of a prominent piece of public art.

“I think a lot of people interpret it as a form of Holocaust denial, to basically obfuscate the reasons for fascist ethnic cleansing,” said 23-year-old Zev Cook, whose initial tweet has now been shared and “liked” thousands of times.

Cook, who is Jewish, is a member of Temple Beth El in Tacoma and also the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.

“This is extremely anti-Semitic and insulting on a bunch of levels,” Cook told The News Tribune. “To make up these lies that are laughably untrue about the reasons for the Holocaust ... I think is especially dangerous in a country like the U.S., where synagogues are being shot up.”

According to Grimley, the egregious mistake was largely a result of false assumptions, as unsatisfying as the explanation might be.

City officials believed Fleming would remove any harmful submissions before etching them into the artwork, she said, but clearly that didn’t happen. She suspects Fleming believed the city had vetted submissions, when it hadn’t.

Grimley said city officials took a “hands-off” approach out of respect for the artistic process, but in retrospect, more communication and oversight were clearly needed.

Attempts by The News Tribune to reach Fleming were unsuccessful. On Tuesday, the artist told the national Jewish publication The Forward that, “We weren’t trying to filter what people wrote or pass judgment on it. Obviously, this one needed to be filtered out.”

Grimley agrees.

“As soon as we learned about it we immediately took action to have it removed. The statement in no way reflects our values as a city, nor does it reflect our positions as a city,” Grimley said. ”I think this is an example of where better communication could have prevented something like this from happening.”

“The only thing we can really can do is apologize for the harm that it’s caused, and make sure something like this never happens again,” Grimley added.

Technically, that’s true. What’s done is done, and by the time residents and city officials gather for Saturday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, the harmful words will be gone.

Still, it’s fair to wonder how this mistake happened, and how long it will take for it to be forgotten.

My guess: Quite a while.