To the Editor:

What happens to a person from hate speech and action can impact their lives long into the future even as it impacts them so heavily in the present.

At the “Confronting Acts of Hate in Our Community” program at the Riverbrook Regional Y on Sunday, Feb. 4, that point was driven home especially powerfully by one of the last speakers from the audience who described her experiences as only a 10-year-old girl. Following 9/11, she said was regularly called a terrorist, often in frightening circumstances of direct confrontation, because of her Middle-Eastern ethnicity and her Muslim religion. Those experiences from over two decades ago remain even now strongly fixed in her mind and are further reinforced by similar words in recent days calling her “terrorist” and “bomber” that bring back to the forefront all of those horrible memories. To describe the experiences (as she did courageously for the over 200 present in the audience) reduced her to heartrending sobbing, the enormity of which surprised even her and inspired program panel member Sohair Omar to move immediately to her side to comfort her.

What this speaker expressed so powerfully drove home the point that words said, as well as actions taken, can have a grave impact that extends many years beyond their occurrence as well as at the time of the occurrence itself. The reality of that fact was underscored by all five of the program’s panelists, who —- from each one’s specific area of focus —- gave very specific examples of hate speech and actions based on race, religion, ethnicity, and gender.

GOOD Morning Wilton’s article describing this program on confronting hate summarized well the impressive coverage of the subject by an excellent panel (Sarvesh Damle, Cantor Harriet Dunkerley, Father Reggie Norman, Omar, and Rachel Simon) augmented by remarks from U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Congressman Jim Himes, CT Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas, Wilton First Selectman Toni Boucher, and speakers from the audience. The subjects addressed ranged across racist, religious (Hindu, Jewish and Muslim), ethnic and gender (gay and transgender) hate speech and actions. (State Sen. Ceci Maher was also on hand and had kindly agreed with the program organizers to speak if Sen. Blumenthal or Rep. Himes could not appear at the last minute.)

As Congressman Jim Himes said, in more than a few cases hate speech and action arise from deep-seated fears, and it is important for us to be able to be in conversation with others, even those with whom we strongly disagree. That is not an easy task, yet it is part of the work of addressing hate speech and action, just as diversity and upstander education is being addressed at Wilton schools (as it has been for multiple years) and also in the broader community, with accountability by our schools and, when appropriate, by the Wilton Police Department applied to wrongful conduct.

Temple B’nai Chaim’s Social Action Group, which organized this program with the support of the Y and the Wilton Library, recognizes that the program itself is only the start of their process of community-wide engagement. To advance that effort, the Group had cards for each member of the program’s audience. Those cards on one side offered advice on how to be effective upstanders and included steps to be taken next in developing coordinated responses and providing help to those impacted by hate speech or actions. The card’s reverse side provided room for each audience member to list contact information: name, email address and phone number, for follow-up.

If you weren’t able to be at the program in person but would like to be part of this community-wide follow-up effort, you can send your contact information to the Group via email.

As our First Selectman Toni Boucher emphasized in her closing remarks at the program, Wilton is a welcoming community for all and this program reflects the desire of our community to be sure that everyone feels that welcome. As she underscored so well, all of us need to be a part of that process. Providing contact information for your active engagement is one very effective way to do exactly that.

Steve Hudspeth