In wake of Charlottesville, kindness wins

“There are three ways to ultimate success:

The first way is to be kind.

The second way is to be kind.

The third way is to be kind.”

— Fred Rogers

A 32-year-old woman was killed in Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday.

Many more were injured.

It was nearly impossible to log onto social media without seeing some outrage about the protests, violence or the horrific death of Heather Heyer when a motorist deliberately drove into a crowd of counterprotesters.

People became enraged and words were lost as visceral emotions took over. The hurt, pain, anger, confusion, fear and sadness filled America. We felt like it was hard to breathe.

Some leaders took a quick, powerful stand in denouncing this bigotry — like Sen. Ted Cruz. In the absence of a reassuring word from President Donald Trump, Cruz stood tall.

“The Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are repulsive and evil,” he said in a statement. He called the assault with a motor vehicle a “grotesque act of domestic terrorism.”

We couldn’t agree more. We condemn this violence as an editorial board and as individuals with heavy, emotional hearts. It is important we acknowledge these feelings.

But we also can’t condone more hate.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote is poignant today: “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Kindness is the biggest weapon we have. We can all be kind. We all have control over how we choose to treat others every day.

You never know who you’re opening the door for.

Some of us — many of us, we suspect — don’t even know who our neighbors are. We haven’t taken the time to get to know them.

We don’t choose our neighbors. We can choose to be kind to them.

Small acts, especially at the homestead, turn a residential street into a community. Neighbors can have a dialogue and know each other’s name and that community can spread.

The beauty of kindness is that is isn’t quantifiable or finite. The strength of it is that it can smother hate.

Working on a national problem needs to start local — and the Star-Telegram Editorial Board encourages all of us to take the first step. Each Saturday we publish a Cheers and Jeers section, where people can write about a good deed a neighbor or a stranger has done.

Send us these moments of kindness. Let’s show how Tarrant County drives out hate.

We can reframe the narrative, one conversation and one day at a time.

This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 6:47 PM with the headline "In wake of Charlottesville, kindness wins."