Which one are you?

An area resident stopped in to a Delano business. A casual discussion ensued during the transaction with the business owner, and somehow the subject of trap shooting came up. The customer was involved in an area league. The business owner, assuming the customer was a kindred spirit, commented that it was important to stock up on guns and ammunition "to be ready when the Liberals and Ni**ers try to take over this town.”

The customer was shocked and disappointed at the comments and sentiments.  He relayed the story of this encounter in a social media post to the community, not wanting to name the business or owner.  At the time the community was processing a new incident involving a local black family who came home to find their home had been broken into and vandalized, racial slurs painted on their walls.

Years before this occurred, a black man (to honor his privacy I'll call him Tony) stopped at the Holiday station near Coborn's to fill the gas tank. A local resident greeted him and asked if he lived in Delano. Tony had just built a new home in town. The resident asked him if he liked basketball and invited Tony to join him at local Tigers games.

The new resident doesn’t have to be a person of color to inspire fear, angst, hatred or discomfort. It could be a person with a rainbow bumper sticker.  It could be someone born with a different chromosomal pattern whose gender may be ambiguous. 

Are you one of the people who arms himself with weapons in response to new, different people moving to town? Are you the person who hears something hateful but doesn’t respond? Are you one who recognizes that someone you perceive as 'different' might feel isolated, and who makes it a point to welcome them into our community?