Bigotry leads to violence

The WHT story about a wheelchair-bound, homeless man being brutally attacked in Pahoa was deeply disturbing. Hearing that community members came to the aid of “houseless” Mr. Hartley was uplifting, as was hearing the shift in attitude of the businessman who’d previously dissed the homeless. On another page, a photo showed a vigil held in honor of the people gunned down in Orlando. Story after story, in one edition of our small newspaper alone, were tales of horrendous acts of violence followed by collective mourning.

As much as it’s nice to see people join together after barbaric tragedies, one has to wonder why people don’t see the humanity of “the other” — gays, Muslims, homeless, women — until disaster befalls them, or they know them personally, or it’s in their town or a club like the one they go to or like a school their children attend. Does it take a heinous act to get a Pahoa shopkeeper to see a person with excruciating challenges as worthy of respect? Do scores of gay people have to die for the rest of us to understand that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are basic human rights defined in the Declaration of Independence and worth defending as much as, or more than, the right to own weapons?

Bigotry creates second-class citizens and engenders a vicious cycle of violence, hate, and retaliation. Despite the enlightenment and wisdom shown by our nation when it elected an eminently qualified African American man for president, American idolatry of guns and elevation of a paper mache, bigoted person like Donald Trump casts a pall over our collective improvement and diminishes our nation’s role as a beacon of freedom in the world.

Though some try to weaponize themselves out of fear and insecurity, we’d all be better off if we looked inside ourselves to find signs of the bigotry and hate that divide us from our neighbors and fellow citizens. Instead of listening to fear-mongering lobbyists and extreme right-wing media, we must soul-search our way toward being a kinder, more inclusive, morally defensible, and, yes, lovable country — one person at a time.

Janice Palma-Glennie

Kailua-Kona