We read the beautiful letter penned by Misti Burmeister and printed in the July 8 edition. We agree with each and every word she wrote. Let us explain why Speak Out Against Hate was initiated: Hate was rising around us, it was becoming normalized in our culture, hateful words were leading to hateful acts, and few, if any, public-facing officials were speaking out about or against it. We could not remain silent nor ignore what was happening.
We sought out and have engaged political leaders, faith leaders, business leaders, school and youth officials and first responders, seeking to have them recognize this societal ill, and to actively participate in not only calling attention to it, but also in shaping positive speech and community behavior. In short, returning our culture locally and nationally to one that, in Burmeister's words, encourages love, kindness, cooperation, welcoming, a sense of belonging, peace, hope, all without judgment, community over divisiveness, togetherness and open doors!
Indeed, SOAH's website boldly states its why: kindness, love, understanding, peace and harmony. There is absolutely no distance between what Burmeister advocates and what SOAH seeks to accomplish. A number of factors continue to promote discord, distrust and the widening societal cleavage. The initiative to which Burmeister refers was launched at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Lewes June 19. It is a simple, direct, powerful and declarative statement that hate does not exist and will not be tolerated in each such place in which it is displayed, and is one that we hope all citizens, businesses, schools, public buildings and faith houses will adopt: Hate has no home here.
Let's together make this a reality. Our sincere hope and desire is that Burmeister and the Cape Gazette readers will join with us in this effort. This is something we must work at together to achieve. Surely, in the absence of hate, our towns and cities will enjoy each and every one of the positive attributes cited by Burmeister.
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