Together, We Can Make A Difference

How does a city live through a week like last week and not become numb to its violence? A pipe bomb, a double murder, racial intimidation on a college campus - all within three days.

Ours is a community that prefers to think of itself in terms of its parks, its neighborhoods, its friendliness. Instead, it’s being defined by extremism, hatred and fear. It’s enough to make you want to hide in your house and hope it goes away.

But it won’t. Not without considerable effort and courage.

Of course, it’s all overwhelming. How can one person stop racism? Can an individual put an end to domestic terrorism? The enormity of the tasks paralyze people.

But even the smallest gestures can chip away at larger problems. Take the hate campaign going on at Gonzaga University. African Americans, primarily law students, have been the target of anonymous racist letters, harassing phone calls and graffiti for a year now. People shake their heads and feel badly, but what do they do?

So far, not enough. There has been a rally or two, a reward offered and a thorough examination of the racial climate in the college newspaper. Despite this, the victims say they’ve mostly felt isolated and rejected. There has been little personal outreach.

And that’s where society has lost some connection with itself. We’ve stopped reaching out to people in need, or congratulating people who deserve it. At Gonzaga, people should be extending words of empathy and offers of help to the victims of this hate campaign. The letters and calls should be non-stop.

On a broader level, we should all make a point to object when we hear someone say something racist or hurtful to others. We should go out of our way to meet and befriend people different from ourselves.

People feel better when they take proactive steps. Some mothers of West Valley High School students made thousands of ribbons last week to help students cope with their sorrow of the deaths of two former classmates. Just wearing the ribbons is a statement against the violence that took the girls’ lives. Dozens of others have contributed to a trust fund set up at U.S. Bank branches to help pay for medical bills.

The kind of violence Spokane witnessed this week - whether verbal, psychological or physical, did not rise up overnight. In each case, it took years of hostility, bad experiences and misconceptions to ripen. In each case, the perpetrators gave some clue as to what they’re thinking - bombers spout off about government oppression, murderers exhibit violent tendencies, racists can barely contain the bile that spews from their mouths.

It’s during those developmental stages where reasonable people can make a difference.

Don’t hide; don’t cower. Stand tall and speak up.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Anne Windishar/for the editorial board