As racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim bigotry, nativism, hatred and violence escalate in our society many are asking, “What is to be done?” To begin, we have to understand that these issues did not begin yesterday or with the emergence of a particular political figure. They are problems that to greater or lesser extents have defined this country. They are transgenerational realities. How do we push back? By rejecting them ourselves and joining the legions of others who realize that we cannot move meaningfully into the future carrying the putrid, ever weightier baggage of the past.

When you make up your mind that you will not be a racist, you have begun to dismantle racism. When you are determined that you will not condone the denigration and defamation of other faiths, you are attacking anti-Muslim bigotry. When you proclaim in word and deed that this world was made for the benefit of all of its inhabitants, you are undermining nativism. When you make love the guiding principle in your life, you are destroying the foundation of hate. When you internalize the advice given by the best of creation, peace upon him, that Almighty God gives through gentleness what He does not give through violence, you become an ambassador for peace. It is with these personal yet powerful assertions of individual agency that change starts.