by Patty Bates-Ballard

Created on: November 22, 2008

When someone says something offensive, do you know what to say? While millions of Americans celebrated the election of our nation's first African-American president on November 4, many others raged, penned racist rants threatening president-elect Obama's life, and assaulted their neighbors. America, it's time we find a way to express ourselves more constructively.

Racists coming out of the woodwork

The Southern Poverty Law Center is reporting hundreds of election-related hate incidents over the last two weeks, including cross burnings, noose hangings and hate-filled graffiti, including death threats to Mr. Obama scrawled on the "free speech" wall at North Carolina State University. Former University of Texas football player Buck Burnette's was only the most widely reported of scads of vile, racist Internet postings. Now two Durham, North Carolina police officers are under investigation for posting Internet insults about President-elect Obama. Perhaps the most discouraging incident comes from Idaho, where elementary school children chanted "assassinate Obama" on a school bus.

But of all the incidents reported so far, one in New York City serves as a clear warning about where we could be headed. On November 9, an American soldier and veteran of the war in Afghanistan pummeled an American college student and Obama supporter into critical condition because neither one seemed to have the ability to talk about the election respectfully. Angel Moreno, a junior studying wellness management, suffered critical head injuries when witnesses say he was punched by Private Kevin Flanagan of Manchester, NH. Moreno reportedly responded to Flanagan's derogatory comments about Obama by asking him, "How do you like working for Obama now?" and "Obama [screwed] you!"

No matter how ill-advised this response, considering the lingering effects so many soldiers suffer as a result of the stress of battle, both men will pay dearly because they didn't have the skills to converse with each other about issues of race and politics.

As children we used to say, "Sticks and stones will break my bones but words can never hurt me." There are some people with extremely strong character and high self esteem for whom that adage may work. But for most of us, hateful comments do hurt. What's more, such comments usually are accompanied by or lead to actions that, at the very least, exclude and often directly discriminate.

This election season has been full of examples of the undeniable fact that Americans

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