In Sunday’s letter (“We are still wary of those not like us”), Roger Hull suggests that to be wary of others is racist and, furthermore, that makes everyone a racist. No, it makes you cautious of people you don’t know, and this is part of a built-in need to survive. Well, you might say, society should have progressed by now, after all we have laws and social amenities for meeting and greeting others we don’t know, and we do. Our DNA is programmed for protection and survival, not necessarily pre-judgment of others we don’t know. Your brain has control of your judgment, not your DNA. To believe otherwise is a denial of everyone’s free will, in which I do believe.

I do not agree that people are genetically wound up and at birth begin living a pre-determined genetic life. Yes, the color of one’s eyes, the color of one’s hair, your height, all these physical characters are determined by DNA. But your consciousness, your thinking, creates your world and the environment is your looking glass. If you don’t like what you see, then change your thinking.

To believe all people are racist is inaccurate. This thought permeates the thinking of politically correct thinkers. Stop believing you are always right and try a little empathy with others. Just say, “I hear you.”

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, even if you don’t agree with their viewpoint. Empathy may not resolve our differences or solve all our problems, but it is the best tool for compromise and getting along. Or we could all have our safe rooms to go to and not have to deal with differing opinions; this will not resolve your problems or the world where you have to live.

— Richard Roberts

Kannapolis