There ought to be a law: If a person cannot spell their own race, they cannot hate another. Call it an intellectual threshold for intolerance. The closed-minded already embarrass themselves with their opinions, but illiteracy is just icing. The two often go hand-in-hand, though.

Consider the recent incident in Rangeley, where a housing development owned by a Jewish man was defaced with discriminatory graffiti. Some ne’re-do-well painted a swastika, “KKK” and “wite power” and “wight power” around the property.

The intent was hateful, but the execution was juvenile. We’re surprised the paint-happy bigot even spelled KKK right. Whether they understood what each letter of the acronym stands for, however, is likely less than 50-50.

It is possible “white” was misspelled intentionally. It’s more probable, though, the disaffected perpetrator has a basic grasp of phonetics but not spelling. Their hatred appears as facile as their knowledge of the English language.

Misspelling their race – twice – only proves their lack of understanding about race and culture in general.

Which means this is a crime of ignorance, meant to shock and offend. In many ways, this makes it worse – idle discrimination by the simple-minded is almost impossible to control. It thrives in the vacuum betwixt the ears.

Deep-seated intolerance can be combated, because it generates swift, appropriate responses. Our society has no patience for the hateful as a rule, and will rightfully condemn those who push such agendas.

Then again, this crime’s pure stupidity should make locating the offender easy.

Since ignorance is bliss, police only need to look for the happiest person around.