Education Can Help Curb Hate

* Re: “Recognizing the Danger of Nonviolent Hate Crimes,” Sept. 20.

When the “Little Saigon” sign was initially placed on the Garden Grove Freeway, it was subjected to vandalism daily by zealous patriots who viewed it as the gradual corrosion of America into pockets of ethnic communities.

Our focus on race in the census also fuels bigotry, paranoia and prejudice when the media report about “white flight” and the inevitable “minority majority” that should happen around 2005. If we want to curb hate crimes, we must begin with education.

Marcia Choo believes that anyone who vandalizes with hate is eventually emboldened to “the next step,” and therefore she wants to prosecute vandals under felony hate-crime laws.

But her approach may serve only to strengthen the hatred when the vandals blame their sentences on the groups they hate.

The better solution is to subject vandals to community service among the people they hate and to teach them that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

The affirmative-action program in the ‘70s opened many previously locked doors into the work force for minorities and women. Now we have minorities and women working side by side with white males, and when we work together we discover how small our differences really are.

LIONEL DeLEON

Garden Grove