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News and Editorials A Banner Week for Bigotry August 3, 2006 Last week was stunning for West Coast hate-mongers. Stabbing an elderly Sikh, beating an African-American while shouting "White Power", shooting a Jewish Community Center, and Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Semitism. There's no excuse for such lashing out at our neighbors. Assaulting someone "by mistake" when aiming for another minority group or because of skin color, killing innocents because of religion, drunkenness as a reason for bigotry - none of it is excusable. It's symptomatic of the ignorance of our times when the parents of white power assailants claim that they don't know where their young sons would have gotten these ideas. While hate and fear can stem from individual experience, bigotry and prejudice are truly learned: at home by what we say in private, in public by what our "leaders" say, even from friends. It can be unlearned too, if we'll stop ignoring it. I'm not as comfortable as some with the idea that these incidents are isolated and not organized. To the potential victims - as well as to all of us - the danger is all too real. Lone bigots kill people in America and our recent history shows us that they don't need mob support to do it. Bart A. Charlow |
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