Hate and violence plague our schools and our nation. Xenophobia, bigotry, prejudice, and incivility are a regular feature of our political environment and media.

Consider the attack on Asian American students by African American students at South Philadelphia High School in December 2009; the white high school football players who murdered a Mexican immigrant in Shenandoah, Pa., in July 2008; the Jewish home vandalized with swastikas and ethnic slurs in suburban Philadelphia this spring; a recent report of a Delaware neo-Nazi skinhead who killed a black man in Philadelphia to earn his stripes as a hate-group member; a teenager who hanged herself after persistent cyberbullying.

To combat this unsettling trend, the Anti-Defamation League is sponsoring the inaugural Walk Against Hate on May 15 on Martin Luther King Drive. Our goal is to bring our community together in solidarity against the destructiveness of hate in all of its forms.

For almost 100 years, the Anti-Defamation League has been devoted to fighting anti-Semitism and hatred. Whether the manifestations of prejudice we address receive a great deal of public attention or not, they cause great pain, leave scars, and sometimes lead to long-term debilitating consequences. However, with the support of devoted, compassionate individuals, these unfortunate incidents can be turned into opportunities. We can learn from them, comfort victims, improve our responses, and confront bigotry and prejudice.

At the same time, we should take stock of the richness and strength of our diversity, a dramatically increasing feature of American life. We should take encouragement from the programs that enable students to accept themselves, to serve as role models, to learn about and be more accepting of others, to act as peer leaders, to apply the lessons of the past to today, and to be better prepared and more informed to compete in the global marketplace.

Change starts with an idea. It grows into a voice. It culminates in action. We should appreciate the power of our words, the effects of our actions, and our ability to make important changes. Being a bystander is not an option when so many of the incidents mentioned above occur regularly around us.

Philadelphia is the birthplace of the values and freedoms that have served our country so well, especially those that promote justice and fair treatment for all. We should take pride in that history, talk the talk, and now walk the walk.

With each step in the Walk Against Hate, we reaffirm these values and our commitment to fight bigotry, prejudice, and hatred. Join us.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.