One of the most dangerous effects of this election was that issues of race, gender, religion and sexuality were interwoven with politics.
Since the election, more than 700 hate crimes have been reported, indicating that many individuals interpreted the election results as a license to threaten and intimidate women, Muslims, people of color and immigrants.
Schools have been hit hardest by this rash of hate crimes. We are fortunate that Durango is small and insulated from many of these acts. It does not mean we are immune to them or that members of our community do not still feel threatened.
The intent of hate crimes is to create fear and intimidation among a targeted population. Our community must choose to either wait and see, hoping for the best, or come up with proactive strategies to address hate crimes.
To move forward, we must come together, which means we must first disentangle politics from ethics and civil rights issues. When we erroneously blend politics and civil rights, conversations devolve into attacks against liberals or conservatives.
If we can ground our conversation in the values and ethics associated with religious freedom and freedom from discrimination based on race, gender and sexual orientation/identity, perhaps we can come together as a community and proactively take a stand against hate.
We must actively avoid oversimplifying any group of individuals, and instead determine what our expectations for protection would be for those we know and love. We must take those expectations and apply them equally to every person, whether we understand them or not.
Every individual in our community belongs here and has a right to feel safe and protected.
Our schools, police force, sheriff’s department, churches, business owners, community leaders and citizens can use this post-election momentum as an opportunity to unite against hate.
Perhaps it is time to hold a community meeting and decide how we will respond if acts of hate threaten our community.
Do we have a community plan?
Emily Thompson
Durango
