I applaud the staff of The Poly for their news coverage of the recent tragedy "we Americans have faced"! I also applaud their statements to the community to put aside the anger and hatred we have stirring in our hearts, and to unite as one big multicultural family. We are an ethnically diverse community, and we need to reach out and understand each other. I consider myself a member of the human race, as we all are equally and nothing less. But if you want to classify me, then I’m an American—born and raised here, but with cultural roots and ties to India, and a Hindu religious origin.

However, I prefer that we need not judge each other and profile each other purely based on culture. (Since there is only one race, the human race.) We judge each other on the character and moral beliefs we hold true and self-evident. I seriously implore you to take a stand against the bigotry and racist beliefs that may be in our minds unconsciously. These recent attacks probably did stem from fanatical religious factions of Islamic groups, who are presently practicing "jihad." Their viewpoints do not even come close to reflecting the views of all members of the Islamic faith.

These terrorists are more in line with "sick fanatics," who receive pleasure from hurting and oppressing the innocent and claiming retribution for U.S. policy. Well, they need to be civilized and diplomatic to make their points, but for that moment their minds were very clouded by misguided hate and anger. Hopefully, the U.S. government will rely on information from countries like Israel and India, who have been targets for the past few years by the same presumed terrorist organization that carried out these atrocities in New York City and Washington D.C. We need all of the governments of terrorist-attacked countries to work together to catch these culprits for their inhumane behavior.

However, we cannot allow the same misguided hate and rage of the terrorists to take over the minds of our fellow people, by no means can we take out our anger on fellow citizens who may presumably look physically similar to the terrorists we have just faced. People’s character is what we should judge—not their skin color!

Please guide your anger into more constructive manners, for all of us students, think about becoming the best you can be in your field and developing ideas and equipment that help progress our human nature rather than revert us to sadistic animals. Professors need to be mentors right now and help us in educating and fostering these positive and productive ideals. Keep a good positive mental focus of the world, as we continue through these tough days. Take care.

Nagesh Rao