You must read between the lines somewhat to understand why Rhys Johnson was dumped as director of Coeur d’Alene’s Human Rights Education Institute.

Johnson, who’d been on the job only eight months as the institute’s first director and local human rights activist talked about differences of vision, an inadequate fit and the need for more groundwork to be laid.

Typically, board members downplayed the bump in their road, saying Johnson’s vision for the institute may have been too big. Johnson, meanwhile, told The Spokesman-Review he’d been successful in his short stay because he helped provide focus for a human rights vision that went beyond the story of how Kootenai County bankrupted the late Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations.

Neither side was candid, although a careful listener got the impression that Coeur d’Alene was too parochial for the well-traveled, blunt Johnson, who arrived in town last November after working for seven months to build a judicial system in East Timor. The fledgling institute, on the other hand, was surprised to learn that Johnson’s expanded idea of human rights included some involvement in the ongoing Sanders Beach property rights dispute.

The ousted director may have given the best hint to what his removal was about when he told the Coeur d’Alene Press that board members wanted “someone who is like them.”

That isn’t such a bad idea. Rather than spend another two years in a worldwide search for a director, the institute might be better served by looking for an executive from the Northwest – someone with extensive human-rights involvement and an understanding of the nuances of small communities. The institute’s parent organization, the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, has been successful for 25 years in North Idaho because it respected the way small towns operate, was patient in educating others about human rights and developed a consistent message.

For years, the task force relied on local activists, attorneys, law enforcement, business owners and local activists to prevent white supremacists from gaining more than a foothold in North Idaho. Through trial and error, the late Bill Wassmuth, Tony Stewart, Norm Gissel, Marshall Mend and others developed a model plan of resistance for the Coeur d’Alene area that they shared with other towns facing an invasion. In 1987, their efforts were rewarded with international recognition when the Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States presented Coeur d’Alene with its first community award for human rights.

In seeking to establish a broad education scope, institute members may have been too impressed with Johnson’s battle for human rights in the world’s hot spots to consider how he’d fit in North Idaho after the Aryan Nations. But institute supporters can take comfort that Johnson’s brief tenure has helped them focus on what they want.

The institute should consider its parting of ways with Johnson to be no more than a stumble that shouldn’t hamper its worthy mission to spread the word about human rights.