Rock incident shows need for conversations | News, Sports, Jobs – Alpena News
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Hate has no place in this community.
Nor does any expression of hate.
But that’s exactly what happened when someone recently defaced the large boulder in front of Alpena High School with racist words, homophobic statements, and antisemitic symbols.
The district quickly repainted the rock and later apologized to the community for not quickly addressing the issue with the public. District officials say police are investigating the incident.
We hope police quickly find who did the deed and they’re duly punished, either through the courts if police determine they committed a crime and/or through the schools if they are students.
But we believe the incidents shows the need for a bigger conversation.
Chances are, the rock-painters were just a few students who thought what they were doing was funny.
But it’s not funny. It causes real harm. Our neighbors of color, gay neighbors, and Jewish neighbors shouldn’t be subjected to hate.
We believe the incident provides an opportunity for a bigger community conversation about rooting out hate where it exists, about educating our kids about the harm they might cause with what they think are jokes, about the responsibilities we all share to make sure we stand up to hate when we see it.
Northeast Michigan is a beautiful and welcoming place, and the haters surely make up nothing more than a small minority, but every instance of hate holds us back, and we have to talk about how we get rid of it.
It begins with conversations, talking in schools, churches, and other public forums about the value of every person and the harm they feel when people target them.
That painted rock shows us we need to have those conversations now.