Southern California may well be the most cosmopolitan region on the face of the earth. For the most part, we live and work together with extraordinary civility. Unfortunately when events of the day cause emotions to run high, we can see that intolerance is still common in our everyday lives. Whether it be an offensive remark scrawled on a wall, an anonymous flyer inciting hatred, or a slur overheard in a hallway, these acts of bigotry debase us all. We must all therefore actively condemn both the acts themselves and their perpetrators.
Some people find it threatening to encounter people different from themselves.
Some respond to this sense of being threatened by making cruel and degrading remarks or gestures which belittle the person who is different. What's more, even if we ourselves are not the offenders, we may stand idly by while others demonstrate hostility toward people whose religion, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation differs from our own. Yet it is precisely that indifference, that willingness to let cruelty and intolerance pass unremarked, which we must combat. How much easier life would be if each of us were responsible only for himself or herself. But in fact each of us is connected to the fate of everyone else in very important ways.