COEUR d’ALENE — You don't have to be a doctor to have a "Ph.D." — "a passion to have dialogue."

Phillip Tyler, president of the Spokane National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said this kind of "Ph.D." must be employed in today's America, "and it must be employed with all. With all sides, with all colors, with all ethnicities, with all genders," he said. "We must also have faith, success, courage and two-way conversations.

"We must never forget that if we do end up — and we surely will on occasion — disagreeing on an issue, we need to disagree respectfully while supporting and still loving one another," Tyler continued. "If Republican people would talk to Democratic people, we would be a more diplomatic people. Let's strip away the 'R' and the 'D' and focus on these two letters: U and I."

Tyler was the honored keynote speaker Friday evening during the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations' 20th annual Human Rights Banquet. The event was held in the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn with a theme of "The Importance of Treating All Persons with Respect and Dignity."

Tyler, who is also a board member of the Spokane County Human Rights Task Force and serves on the Spokane City Mayor's Advisory Council on Multi-Cultural Affairs, spoke of improving communication in society, loving people despite disagreements and the importance of finding common ground.

He asked for a show of hands when he asked a few questions — who has a pet, who is an only child, who is one of many children — and asked everyone to look around.

"What did you recognize when the questions were asked when you looked around the room?" he asked. "A lot of commonality. We have more in common than we have that's different, and that's our starting ground, our commonality."

He encouraged all to resist the normalization of hate, in person or online in social media.

"We must ensure that we are not becoming the hate we are fighting," he said. "Do not let hate consume you, my friends."

The evening featured a few other speakers, including KCTFHR secretary Tony Stewart and Coeur d'Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer, and the KCTFHR honored the Coeur d'Alene Tribe with the 2017 Civil Rights Award.

Theresa Whitlock-Wild, a Lewis-Clark State College Coeur d'Alene senior who attended the banquet, said this was an important event because the issue of treating others with respect and dignity is extremely relevant.

"Now, more than ever, our world needs kindness, our world needs understanding and our world needs compassion," she said. "We make baby steps, then our communities come together and then it can become a worldwide global effort. But it has to be done with baby steps."