Lasting reminder. Coeur d’Alene will continue its transformation from a former haven for white supremacists into a beacon for human rights when the Human Rights Education Institute opens on the edge of City Park Saturday morning.

The center, which will be housed in an old brick battery building initially, bears witness to the men and women who prevented the Aryan Nations creed from taking hold in Kootenai County during the last quarter century – and to a universal vision that all people should be treated with respect. Some involved in the human rights struggle died before they could see the day when an education center would greet visitors in the heart of Coeur d’Alene, like Bill Wassmuth, the former leader of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. But their memory and cause will be preserved forever now.

The grand opening will include an unveiling of a 13,000-pound slab, inscribed with the International Declaration of Human Rights. The event represents another milestone for a community that persevered against hate.

Tortured policy. Is the United States involved in torture? It’s maddening that a simple answer is so elusive. President Bush recently stated that our country does not practice torture. But his administration is working behind the scenes to exempt the CIA from a U.S. Senate measure that would ban inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is now doing the we-don’t-torture tap dance, but many European countries don’t believe her. After all, the administration has yet to deny press reports that the CIA has secret prisons in Europe.

Rice did say on Wednesday that U.S. personnel are bound by the U.N. treaty on torture regardless of location. But it’s not clear whether that’s the official policy of the administration, because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said last year that the treaty did not apply to U.S. personnel on foreign soil.

All of this confusion just fuels the speculation that the United States either practices torture or outsources it to other countries. That’s an image we need to erase as quickly as possible. The president needs to make it clear that we do not practice or condone torture. And that our definition of torture hasn’t been expanded to include previously outlawed acts.