Dispel fear and hate

What I have not been able to wrap my mind around is why people fear and/or hate people who are different than themselves. Are we not all different from each other even when we share the same skin color, religion, culture or heritage?

No two people think exactly alike, nor should they. People who have more pigment in their skin are human, as are women, as are people with differing sexual preferences. Yet those who are born in different cultures and celebrate different religions are feared for reasons I fail to understand. I portend that it’s unreasonable to fear something one knows nothing about while at the same time refusing to get to know and understand that which they fear. It’s like the bogeyman under the bed in the imagination of the child, but when we turn on a light it disappears. That light is knowledge and understanding, and yet there are many who prefer instead to hide in ignorance, feeling secure in their bigotry, fear and hatred.

We have those in power who promulgate that fear and hatred in order to divert attention away from their actions. Racism is being used as a political tactic, and we have way too many people buying into the rhetoric; it’s causing dissension and violence in this country. We attack those who have done us no harm because we are afraid, but we’re fearing the wrong people. That can be cured through knowledge and understanding. JUDITH K. ZITKO Hot Springs Village