Muskogee residents, whether we like it or not, have become a sounding board for tolerance in the world.
A Kazakhstan-based film crew came to Muskogee last week to make a documentary about the recent establishment of a mosque.
The film crew came because Muskogee made news in 2003 when an elementary student was told she couldn't attend class if she wore a hijab, a head scarf. Later, the school district revised its dress code to accommodate religious expression.
The documentary will be shown by the MIR television and radio company, which broadcasts in Russia and former Soviet states. Some of those states are troubled by sectarian struggles.
We have our work cut out here, too.
It's not easy to live together when ideas, beliefs and values clash, especially now, when we're involved in a war, physically and ideologically, with radicals in the Middle East. We cannot assume, though, that all Muslims believe what the terrorists believe, just as you can't assume all Americans believe alike. Our country ahs had its internal struggles even without pressure from the outside.
And now no place on the globe is insulated from worldwide forces.
Muskogee residents do not live in isolation, and as the Kazakhstan film crew proves, other parts of the world are looking for examples of diverse communities at peace, practicing tolerance, acceptance, charity.
Yes, immigration and a shrinking world challenges our way of live, values and traditions. But exposure to other cultures and peoples also helps us to understand ourselves better, to more clearly see our virtues and faults.
A film crew has been here once to see how we're doing. The crew and others will come again to see whether we've succeeded or failed at setting an example the rest of the world can follow.