The documentary and presentation \Journey to a Hate Free Millenium"" helped students to understand what breeds hate and how they can help end its cycle at Memorial Union Theater Monday evening.
Brent Scarpo, producer and director of the documentary, founded New Light Media, a nonprofit organization attempting to eradicate hate in the world. Scarpo asked students to get involved and be passionate about hate-related issues.
""I truly believe all the answers to life's problems are in this room. The question is, what are you going to do about it?"" he said. ""Hate breeds its ugly head in silence. ... Hate loves when you don't do a thing.""
Scarpo said he felt moved to make the documentary after the deaths of hate-crime victims Matthew Shepard, James Byrd, Jr. and the teacher and students of Columbine High School.
UW-Madison junior Megan Jensen was selected to go onstage and explain the word ignorance. In response to previous comments by Scarpo about another student onstage, she defined ignorance as ""a lack of knowing, like assuming everyone in the audience is heterosexual.""
Jensen and other audience members said they felt Scarpo's message contradicted his comments and addressed him directly.
""You need to acknowledge that yes, you said something very heterosexist,"" Jensen said. ""Your language all the time should be mindful of that fact.""
The documentary included interviews with Matthew Shepard's mother, sisters of James Byrd, Jr. and white supremacist-turned tolerance advocate T.J Leyden. Leyden shared stories of his time as a neo-Nazi leader as well as his reformation.
""If there's a lion up on the hill that's going to come down and kill your child tomorrow, ... I can help you with that and kill the lion today,"" he said. ""The blacks, Jews, lesbians and gays, those are the lions up on the hill you need to kill before they hurt your white child.""
Scarpo said one of the most important ways to stop hate is by speaking with people of differing life experiences.
""Be united; make a difference to say this is what we want our lives to be,"" he said. ""I think one basic question you need to ask if you've ever been victimized is looking at the perpetrator and saying, 'Why do you hate me?' ... and to look at not only why we hate each other, but why do we hate ourselves?\
