Perhaps you received the same piece of hate mail. It would be easy to dismiss it had not the same arguments been appearing in letters-to-the-editor in Maine papers and on the airways. In a state of 1.2 million people, the presence of a few thousand non-white immigrants has brought out of the woodwork language not heard here since the heyday of the nativist KKK in the 1920s.

But there are other voices, too. In a speech last spring at the University of Maine, former State Attorney General Jim Tierney asked: why not view new immigrants not as a potential social problem, but as an opportunity? Here we have a state whose population is aging and shrinking, many of whose brightest young people have to leave in search of good jobs, whose tax base is declining, whose downtowns are decaying - why aren't we trying to persuade as many people to move here as possible? Tierney cited the example of the large Hmong community from Cambodia who were resettled in Minneapolis. Yes, there were some problems, but today the Hmong have helped revitalize the city through new small businesses, renovated housing, steady paychecks, and eager kids in school.

There is not space here to do justice to Tierney's thought-provoking argument, but it does suggest a new way of looking at the world. What if "difference" were a virtue, rather than an inducement to panic? And what if we were to expand our definition of the concept to include not just race and ethnicity but the whole span of human variety? What if we were to bring up our children not just to spot difference but to celebrate it?

You can learn about our Born To Read program's step in that direction in this issue. It occurred to me that many of the Council's other programs also reflect that same urge to examine the world's differences in a positive light. We have teacher programs this year on East Asia, the Islamic world, and the African Diaspora. We have helped fund projects like the Children of Abraham conference, the Africana Women in Maine project, the Holocaust Human Rights Center, and the Maine Historical Society's chronicle of the Chinese in Maine. We have worked to make sure that we all are aware of the minority groups that have had a long history in Maine and the ways, subtle or not, in which they have suffered discrimination.

There is so much still to be done, so many angry and hurtful letters still in the mail. A bag of books may seem a modest start. But what if such books had been available for Maine children a generation ago?

PLANNED GIFTS of estate assets are a wonderful way to support the work of the Maine Humanities Council. Gifts or bequests can provide a memorial to a loved one, express appreciation for a program you have enjoyed, or simply add to the Council's fiscal stability. By including a contribution to the Council in your will or living trust, you can help ensure that Mainers in the future will continue to enjoy the rich array of community humanities programs we offer today. For more information, call Susan Wilder, Director of Development, at (207) 773-5051.