Event seeks to improve communication

The Lorain County Anti-Hate Task Force started a conversation on how to tackle hate and intolerance.

The Lorain County Anti-Hate Task Force event Dec. 7 at Lorain County Community College started a community conversation on how to tackle hate and intolerance in the region.

“I saw the work the YWCA was doing in Cleveland and knew we needed the same thing in Lorain County,” said Jeanine Donaldson, executive director of the Elyria YWCA, which sponsored the event. “We’ve always been a partner with law enforcement, because it is important to have communication and understanding between the two sides.”

Donaldson said antihate meetings are necessary to get people talking about a very important issue.

“Hate affects us all,” she said. “It’s more prevalent in our community than people want to admit.

“We need people who are more aware of the issues of others, and who are willing to talk with people of different backgrounds to work out their differences.”

Donaldson said, “our community tends to avoid communication with one another.”

Donaldson said we still don’t know how to talk to someone of a different race, social status or background.

“We can’t allow our community to be defined by social prejudices. We’re stronger together,” she said.

Lorain police Chief Cel Rivera said it’s very important for the Police Department to have a good relationship with the community.

“We need to have to these conversations,” Rivera said. “Police, not just here but also nationally, have been scrutinized on a social and political basis.

“That charged us to look at how we are servicing the community. We need to do more than uphold the law. We need to play our part in improving the community.”

Rivera said the Police Department understands it cannot do this alone.

“We want to partner with groups like the YWCA,” he said. “Working with organizations at every level will allow some real progress to be made. We’re all in this together.”

Lorain City Councilman Angel Arroyo Jr., who represents the sixth ward, said he feels it’s important to have these conversations.

“Hate and intolerance is not that different today,” Arroyo said. “It may be geared more toward language and wealth than income, but it still happens.

“Leaders from all departments and levels have a duty to the community to listen to them. Together we can make a difference.”

ERIC BONZAR — THE MORNING JOURNAL Lorain police Chief Cel Rivera gives his overview on how “we become the community we need” Dec. 7, during the Anti-Hate Task Force forum at Lorain County Community College.