HATE HAS NO BUSINESS HERE... VOTE

October 17th Lecia Brooks, Outreach Director from the Southern Poverty Law Center was invited to speak at Viterbo University thanks to La Crosse's Interfaith Shoulder to Shoulder organization. Her talk was entitled "When Hate is Close to Home." 

Powerful and eyeopening were the Center's data which keeps track of hate crimes across our country and information on how we can work to stop them. Along with a concise informative Civil Rights history lesson spanning some 60+ years, the phrase 'Change is slow' resonated as we heard that Hate unfortunately is alive and living in our country, our cities and our towns. 

Did you know about the existence of 954 active hate groups and 114 Anti Muslim ones?

Did you know there had been a gradual decline in hate crimes until 2016 and since then antisemitic attacks have risen by 57% in the U.S.?

Did you know 41% of millennials don't know what Auschwitz is?

Did you know Islamophobia and domestic terrorism have been on the rise including fire bombs, homes and mosques marred by graffiti, refusal to allow mosques to be built, Muslims harassed in public places, etc...? 

Did you know White nationalists fear being a minority despite whites having a 66% standing of the population with people of color at 34% ? 

Did you know the anti- immigration rhetoric and populist actions from the White House administration are incendiary whether it's Trump, Sessions, Miller/ Breitbart's? 

Under 18 years old

Did you know it is not immigration changing the numbers but rather our country's birthrate? By 2050 the US Census cites Asians as being the fastest growing minority.  




Did you know we are separating families at the border and building separate detention facilities for children and their parents? 

Did you know the thousands coming towards our borders are not a caravan? These are human beings seeking asylum and don't need 14,000 armed U.S.military soldiers meeting them at our border. Where is our humanity?

Radicalization's real with a Troll Storm national movement. 
So what can we do?

  ACT. 
  JOIN FORCES. 
  SUPPORT THE VICTIMS. 
  SPEAK UP. 
  EDUCATE YOURSELF. 
  CREATE AN ALTERNATIVE. 
  PRESSURE LEADERS.
  STAY ENGAGED.
  TEACH ACCEPTANCE.
  DIG DEEPER.

Voter registration

The Poverty Law Center's message was loud and clear: VOTE. 

To aid in those efforts one could register to vote in the lobby after the presentation.









*Update: The following weekend another anti-semite this time performs the heinous crime of murdering 11 Jewish adults while the victims were praying in Sabbath services in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Apparently the perpetrator wants to kill all the Jews due to HIAS, a resettlement group.  HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society,now helps resettle displaced people from all over the world. Ironically, the Genesis bible portion this past Sabbath was Vayera, where Abraham and Sarah have 3 men, strangers, who arrive at their tent whom they welcome, feed, give shade and wash their feet. Welcoming the foreigner is the ethical thing to do.  

Some ask what we can do monetarily. Make sure your school districts can afford  Anti Hate Curriculum. Donate to Southern Poverty Law Center  / HIAS (Immigrant Aid Society).

"When one life is taken all our lives are affected in common grief and conviction to make the world a better place. May we go from strength to strength."

We as a country must rise above this ...