Join Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Day’s first annual coloring contest!

In social climates of heated emotions and violent intolerance, it may not be enough to just not think/act hateful; we also need to display kindness. For example, following the June 6 killings in London, Ontario, of four members of a family for being Muslim, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested to Canadians that “the next time you see a woman in a hijab or a [Muslim] family out for a stroll, give them a smile.”

Due to seemingly plentiful incidents of hate-motivated crimes, his thoughtful request can be applicable to a wide array of such inexcusable attacks. I feel that offering a sincere smile can be a healthy and powerful, yet relatively effortless, potential response by caring individuals to acts of hate targeted at other identifiable-group members of society. (One might also wear anti-hate symbolism, e.g. a colored ribbon or shirt.)

I decided to do this as my own rebellious response to the (as anticipated) acts of racial/religious intolerance that soon followed Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory. Anti-Trump demonstrators’ catchy slogan was “Love Trumps Hate”. Not much for the non-family ‘love’ part, I would do the next best thing by offering a sincere smile.

On one occasion, I smiled at a middle-aged Black woman as I passed her along the sidewalk. To me, she had a lined expression of one who’d endured a hard life. I gave her a smile, and her seemingly tired face lit up with her own smile, as though mine was the last thing she’d expected to receive. We always greet one another, since then, and converse when awaiting the bus.