Do nothing, and let hate go unchallenged.

Or do something — rise up, speak up and stand up against hate.

People across the country routinely choose the latter, making differences, small and large, in their communities.

• A sixth-grade class in Morgantown, W.V., painted over skinhead graffiti on the outside wall of a convenience store. Their teacher had used the graffiti to discuss hatred and violence. After watching "Not In Our Town," a video of how Billings, Mont., fought hate, the children concluded that, left to stand, the graffiti would convey community apathy. They became role models within Morgantown, with press coverage and congratulations from the state Attorney General.

• In 2002, a Sacramento, Calif., man spearheaded a campaign to halt the sales of neo-Nazi clothing at Target stores in his community, sparking nationwide change. A clothing line with "88" symbols — H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and 88 is white-power code for "Heil Hitler" — had been shipped to 1,100 Target stores nationwide. Joseph Rodriguez, a Sacramento Target customer, alerted the Southern Poverty Law Center after being frustrated in his attempts to have the clothing sales halted. Target eventually stopped selling the items and apologized for "any discomfort" caused by the "88" clothing, saying it "does not and will not tolerate discrimination in any form."

• One woman, Ammie Murray of Dixiana, S.C., is credited with rebuilding the tiny black congregation St. John Baptist Church not once but twice after racist vandals destroyed it in 1985 and burned it to the ground in 1995. Discouraged and exhausted after the second incident and with continuous personal threats to her safety, the 65-year-old white woman nonetheless fired up a 1,000-person, multiracial work force that presented the congregation with a new church in November 1998.

• When a white-power rock concert was announced in Traverse City, Mich., a group of citizens created "Hate-Free TC." In a daylong seminar, human rights experts educated local people about neo-Nazi skinheads, their racist music and their connection to an international movement that includes Nazis, white supremacists and the Christian Identity church. They later held an alternative rock concert, and the publicity forced cancellation of the white-power gathering.

What can you do?
Pick up the phone. Call friends and colleagues. Host a neighborhood or community meeting. Speak up in church. Suggest some action.

Sign a petition. Attend a vigil. Lead a prayer.

Repair acts of hate-fueled vandalism, as a neighborhood or a community.

Use whatever skills and means you have. Offer your print shop to make fliers. Share your musical talents at a rally. Give your employees the afternoon off to attend.

Be creative. Take action. Do your part to fight hate.