A summit meeting is usually something seen between warring nations — or at least tense nations that could erupt into attack mode at the drop of a hat.
Summit meetings are a way to broker a peace or defuse hostilities.
We seldom think of them as something that happens in our own backyard, but looking at the way sides are being chosen and lines being drawn, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see that happen.
This week, the Eradicate Hate Global Summit took place in Pittsburgh. Organizers are motivated by the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in 2018, but what brings more people to the event is just how universal the experience of hate-based violence has become.
While attacks of all kinds have become all too common over the years — from Columbine to Sandy Hook to Thousand Oaks and too many more to mention — sometimes the explosive randomness is replaced by animosity targeted at a particular group. In Pittsburgh, it was the Jewish community. In Orlando, it was a gay club. In Charleston, it was a Black church.
Then there are the escalating tensions between people with different political views and a growing sense that sometimes people are pulling apart into groups that don’t even speak the same language and will never be able to come together again. Counteracting that is the point of the summit.
”There are so many people that we see now in our daily lives who disagree on one issue and write off people on every issue. That type of civic discourse has to stop,” said event co-chair Laura Ellsworth.
It does — because hate flourishes in the spaces where people don’t talk, where they believe the other side is not just wrong but unworthy of acknowledgement. Former President George W. Bush addressed the summit Monday with pre-recorded remarks calling the event “a bridge across our nation’s deepest divisions.” A bridge is exactly what is needed and exactly the right metaphor for a gathering in Pittsburgh, a city where so many bridges bring people together.
The easiest thing in the world is to deal in blame for the impasse of hatred. When there is a body count on one side and a smoking gun on the other, the responsibility seems clear.
But when it comes to building a bridge, crossing the divide is what is important. Waiting for the people who are holding onto hatred to do that is accepting that a bridge will never be built.
The summit — which included discussions about the justice system and the rule of law, technology and even art in combating hate — is an example of those who have been most hurt by hatred picking up tools and finding a way to cross the river.
— The Tribune-Review/TNS
