Today, United For a Hate Free San Diego will host its first Hate Crimes Summit at the IPJ here at USD. The summit will feature keynote speaker Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. There will also be testimonials of victims of hate motivated incidents.

"We are attempting to increase the public's awareness of the trend in hate crimes; to educate the public about how these crimes affect our communities, and to empower the public to become part of the solution," states an op-ed piece in today's San Diego Union Tribune.

According to a recent Vista story, there have been 14 hate-related incidents reported on our campus in the "previous months" [not sure how many they were talking about].  Fourteen! I am going to attend and see what they say. It looks like we all need to be informed about what's going on around here.