Today, March 21, is recognized as the International Day Against Racism. The date is significant. On March 21 in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws". As usual, it took a number of years, but in 1966 the United Nations General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights states, Racial discrimination is wrong and harmful in itself. It is a denial of human rights, an affront to human dignity and a direct assault on the foundation of the human rights edifice – the principle of equality. Discrimination and bias also have a direct impact on a society’s development. A society that tolerates discrimination holds itself back, foregoing the contribution of whole parts of its population, and potentially sowing the seeds of violent conflict.

We have certainly seen in stark and tragic detail how discrimination can lead to violent conflict in far too many countries over the course of our human history. In the United States, it was fitting that on Tuesday, March 18, Senator Barack Obama made a speech he titled A More Perfect Union, addressing the question of racism that has been raised in the current US presidential campaign. It was not a only timely speech but essential to facing our collective history - a history of development that came at the expense of our first people's, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, and other immigrant groups throughout our history. Racism persists today and few in the political arena have an interest in opening this perverbial "can of worms" that continues to eat away at the fabric of our nation.

This persistance of discrimination is a problem in every country. No, to be honest, in every community and more to the point, in every home. I can remember a "simple" song from the musical South Pacific - "You've got to be carefully taught" - it very powerfully tells the roots of racial discrimination. The words go like this:

“You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught.”

(Richard Rodgers)

What will we choose to teach the next generation? And how will be choose opporunities to re-educate ourselves, now that we're older, and hopefully wiser?