Pause to ask: Won’t you be my neighbor?

On Saturday in Pittsburgh, Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood became the scene of an unspeakable horror.

Mass murder has come to Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.

Fred Rogers, the beloved, wise sage who counseled kids for decades about the things that bring us together and encouraged them to “be my neighbor,” lived in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

On Saturday, Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood became the scene of an unspeakable horror when a man filled with the antithesis of Fred Rogers’ teachings entered the Tree of Life Synagogue and opened fire.

Eleven innocent lives were lost, and several others were wounded before police confronted and wounded the suspect.

What spurred such a godless act of violence in a place of worship? That part is easy: Hate. The hard part is the why, the suffering and mourning involved in still another wanton act of gun violence. Even harder is knowing what we can do to prevent this from happening again.

The man now charged in America’s latest mass shooting was consumed with anti-Semitic hatred. His social media screeds are an endless stream of vile attacks on the Jewish faith and its followers.

The shooting came just 24 hours after the arrest of a man in Florida charged with sending a series of explosive devices to Democratic leaders and the cable news channel CNN.

Thankfully, no one was injured in any of these incidents.

Again, the underlying theme in this case was a troubled individual who appeared to be filled with a loathing for people who are different than he is, who hold different beliefs, different values. There was a time when these issues would be discussed rationally over a cup of coffee, or at the office water cooler, or even at the kitchen table.

Today they are swept up in inflammatory posts on social media, where the veil of anonymity often gives voice to the ugliest parts of our human nature.

Today those disagreements are too often settled at the end of a gun, or an explosive device packed with glass shards.

America’s melting pot is boiling over.

We see it every day in the rancor that now dominates our political discourse. It is on the radio. It’s all over TV. It is splattered across our newspapers.

But this will not be about assigning blame.

This is not about what drives us apart.

Instead, this will be a plea to live the words that Fred Rogers offered us. This will be a plea to celebrate what brings us together, not what pits us against each other.

We remain traumatized by the pure evil of what happened in Pittsburgh, and by the suspicions that slip into our daily lives in the wake of that series of bomb threats.

Evil will always be present. It will always live in the hearts of those who seek to drive us apart.

But it is not normal. In fact, there is nothing “normal” about it. Perhaps the biggest danger we could face in the shadow of such enmity is capitulating to the idea that this is somehow our “new normal.”

We have endured Columbine. And Sandy Hook. And Virginia Tech. And Las Vegas. And Parkland.

We are inundated with ugly political rhetoric, words that often come dangerously close to inciting violence.

We are Blue and Red. We are liberals and conservatives.

But it is exactly this juxtaposition, this rainbow of beliefs, ethnicity, faith and color that has been the foundation of the world’s greatest democracy.

And it remains our greatest strength. That thread of diversity remains the single element that most unites us. Different, but united. Do we need a vigorous debate? Always.

Does it have to be as ugly — and dangerous — as some of the bile that dominates our discourse?

Words matter. But so do actions.

So get involved. Take up a cause. Work toward solutions. Do not retreat. Ever. As we mourn those lost in the Tree of Life Synagogue, perhaps we can start with this act:

We must reject any notion that this is our new normal.

Yes, there will always be hate. And sometimes it will erupt in unspeakable violence.

But there is nothing normal about it. And we will not accept it as such. We learned once again this weekend that hate is a four-letter word. So is love. That is one of the things that Fred Rogers reminded us again and again.

Won’t you be my neighbor?