I attended the town hall on anti-semitism held in response to the plastering of swastikas and pictures of Hitler’s face to the door of two residents, at least one of who was Jewish, in University of Wisconsin’s Sellery residence hall by some of their neighbors.

I am motivated to write this letter by my severe disappointment in several UW employees who were panelists at this event. These individuals’ job responsibilities include spearheading UW’s team response to incidents of hate and bias and to create a campus where all community members feel welcome and safe.

When the panelists and UW employees, including Multicultural Student Center Director Joshua Moon Johnson, Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate Patrick Sims and Dean of Students Lori Berquam, finished detailing the sequence of events, they opened for questions. I listened as others offered thoughtful critiques of the university response, such as the fact only members of one Sellery tower were notified after the incident report. Only after a Facebook post on the event containing a picture of the door questioned the quality of the university response did UW send a campus-wide email.

The official event ended, but the panelists remained to address the numerous remaining questions. I spoke with the panelists, and the Rabbi and Hillel representative impressed me. The campus officials did not.

I referenced Satyagraha — which is what Gandhi named the non-violent non-cooperation strategy he developed from Tolstoy’s theoretical pacifism and is variably translated as “insistence upon truth” or “love-force” — because I expressed concern so many of the proposed solutions were compulsory participation in diversity programs.

Social sanctions don’t work. Banishing bigots only ensures nobody will be around to challenge their bigotry as they nurture hatred. Satyagraha is the solution. Love is the answer. Love is the sole force powerful enough to overcome hate. We should embrace bigots so we can reason with them. The consequences of forgoing opportunities to insist upon truth are apparent in the Charleston Emanuel Church shooting and the Sikh Temple shooting.

Loving bigots today can save lives tomorrow. Johnson asserted there is no solution to anti-semitic moments before admitting he wasn’t familiar with Satyagraha. Most people aren’t, but most people aren’t paid to respond to hate and bias.

I took Economics 101 on this campus, and let’s not kid ourselves. The problem with paying people to solve problems is employees know as soon as they develop solutions, their new problem is unemployment. Think pharmaceuticals. But I also took Criminal Law and Justice on this campus, and I presume innocence. I cannot sufficiently evidence if the people we are paying to solve this problem are or aren’t committed to solving this problem, but I am willing to question the competency of anyone compensated to combat hate and bias who has not investigated one of the all-time most famous and successful warriors against hate and bias.

The word Satyagraha appears 39 times on Gandhi’s Wikipedia page alone.

Daniel North ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and zoology.