Sheriff Dennis Spruell said it best recently, we live in glass houses.
That statement could not have been more true than it is today.
Homosexuality is on everyone's minds locally and nationally. Locally, as the high school flag flap is still being discussed at water coolers and nationally following the call for the rights of "our gay brothers and sisters" during President Obama's inaugural address.
We must think clearly as a nation and as a community when debating this issue, get our facts straight and choose our words carefully.
It is OK, to voice your opinion about gay marriage, but it is not OK to be hateful.
Would you say those words to your brother or your sister?
With social media providing us platforms to express our opinions, it is easy to reach hundreds with a few clicks of the keyboard.
Saying an entire population of people should be "nuked" is beyond horrific. Those people are our brothers, our sisters, our aunts, our uncles. They are our friends and neighbors. They are people and should be treated as such.
When thirty high school students gathered last week for the SPIRIT program administered by the Department of Justice, some of you thought the school district went too far. But those students spoke up. They discussed how being singled out because of their differences, whether it be the color of their skin or the home they grew up in, was beyond hurtful.
They just wanted to be treated as equals. We all do.
In Dolores, we need to celebrate diversity. Diversity is something we should embrace, not push away.