Barry Morrison

Today, the Anti-Defamation League - joined by Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. (publishers of the Daily News and the Inquirer), WPVI-TV and the Free Library of Philadelphia - launches an ambitious six-month anti-prejudice campaign: No Place for Hate. In the absence of a catastrophic triggering event or alarming statistics, some have asked, "Why bother?" The answers to that question are three: First, hate is a constant. It is part of human nature, so we have to wrestle with it all the time.

The Anti-Defamation League wants Philadelphia to be No Place For Hate, starting today. At the Free Library of Philadelphia this morning, the ADL will introduce a citywide anti-prejudice campaign - called No Place For Hate - aimed at putting an end to bias and fostering an appreciation for people's differences. Police Commissioner John F. Timoney, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, and Deidre Farmbry, chief academic officer of the Philadelphia School District, are expected to be among the first to take the campaign's "pledge against prejudice," a vow the ADL hopes will be made by schoolchildren and others during the six-month education and awareness effort, according to ADL spokeswoman Debbie Fleischman.

He was born 110 years ago yesterday - but he lives on. He lives on in boys who can quote his hateful words and scrawl his dreaded swastikas. He lives on in grown men who talk of racial war and delight in slurring hardworking Americans who happen not to be like them. Yesterday, on April 20, the anniversary of his birth, Adolf Hitler may have been living on at a high school just outside Denver where a pair of Nazi-loving students used semi-automatic weapons to mow down dozens of classmates in a lunchtime massacre.

We take issue with your editorial (Oct. 13) questioning the need for hate-crimes legislation. Hate-crimes statutes are vitally important - to the victim and to the community, and as a deterrent. The murder of Matthew Shepard underscores the need for protection based on sexual orientation. The Anti-Defamation League has been a pioneer in drafting and promoting hate crimes laws. Forty states - including Pennsylvania - have enacted statutes based on or similar to ADL model legislation.

They came from all over the country, community leaders and professionals, looking for ways to stop hate crimes by young people. The two-day conference that ended yesterday in University City was especially timely for the handful of attendees from York County. Four teen-agers from the town of Dover were arrested last week for allegedly plotting to gun down Jewish and black students at their high school. The boys, aged 16 to 19, were arrested after school officials learned of the alleged plot from students who overheard them talking at a bus stop.

Frankie Meeink, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, goes to a dermatology clinic every two months. He gets shot up with painkillers, and then doctors aim a laser at a huge swastika tattooed on his neck. "It feels like someone's stabbing you with a hot pin," said Meeink, 22, who was raised in South Philadelphia. "First it hurts, then it burns. " The swastika, tucked inside a Celtic cross, is blurry after three treatments donated by a Jewish doctor whose family members were killed in the Holocaust.

When it comes to hate crimes committed across the state, whites have an unusual distinction. Whites commit at least half of the hate crimes. At the same time, they match the number of African-American victims of those crimes. Both groups account for 42 percent of the victims. That was the case last year, according to the recently released Pa. State Police Uniform Crime Report, which showed that the number of reported hate crimes dropped nearly 19 percent between 1995 and 1996.

Authorities are looking into anti-Semitic vandalism at a day-care center in South Philadelphia. On Sunday, a swastika was painted on the door of the Downtown Children's Center, which is run by Federation Day Care Services, Kevin Vaughan of the city Human Relations Commission said yesterday. He declined to provide details, but said no similar incidents had been reported in the neighborhood. A pamphlet carrying the name Hitler Free Corps was left in the door handle, said Barry Morrison, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai B'Rith.

They came about 50 strong - ministers, parents, teenagers, community leaders and concerned residents - to take a stand against hate activity in their town. "We are determined to help control the streets of our community by every legal means possible," Mary Edwards said at the town meeting she convened Monday night at the Media Friends School. On Oct. 12, five men - at least three of whom have ties to white supremacy groups - were jailed in connection with the beating of a 23-year-old borough man. The victim and the attackers were white.

At the corner of Third and Market Streets, no one seemed to be talking late yesterday afternoon about the pro-Nazi fliers that had littered residents' lawns and sidewalks the previous night. "I haven't heard anything about it," said Brenda Butt, who works at the Oxford Florist. "And we usually hear everything here. " But police say fliers with such slogans as "White Man Fight Back!" and "Heil Hitler!" have been distributed in the borough over the last two days, and possibly throughout the week.