As this past self-proclaimed Unity Week starts to become a memory, we must all continue to preserve the meaning and heart of what Unity Week stood for. Unity Week was created to begin the process of building an interactive, understanding and respectful community in and around this campus.

Last week was just the beginning and it takes a long process to build this community into the hope and dreams of many people from this campus. We wore gray ribbons this past week to show our organized efforts to unite. Gray was chosen because it represents an achromatic color of any lightness between the extremes of black and white. Gray was chosen to represent the united efforts from the many shades of our community. This university has many problems from racism, to homophobia, to religious persecution; we must start at some common ground and that is that we are all human beings.

Many people heard from Lee Mun Wah and Roberto Almanzán that nobody has ever died from hearing the truth. It takes all of us from the university and State College to not only tell our stories, but for all of us to listen, understand and respect them. Listening, understanding, and respecting are the different levels of the process of building a community that accepts all of its members. It is not enough to tolerate each other; we've been doing that for decades and have not gotten very far.

This should not happen for just one week, but every week of the year. It is a process that will take a long time and patience. If we all work together as a united campus with a united effort we can begin to achieve our dreams. From this time forward, we must realize that the power, strength, and support lies within us all as individuals and as a community as a whole. Make every day Unity Day, every week Unity Week, and every year Unity Year.