On the night of Nov. 12, a remarkable thing happened. At the end of a long meeting of the Sunnyvale City Council, representatives of the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple withdrew their request to rename a portion of Persian Drive to Mandir Drive. They had originally petitioned the city to make the change because the term "Mandir"" means "Temple," and they wanted the many contributions of the Indian community to receive formal civic recognition in this way. They withdrew their request because they discovered that getting civic recognition for the Indian community could have potentially deprived another minority community —the Persian community—of that same distinction.

We believe the leadership of the Hindu Temple Association did a very noble thing. Rather than press the case for the name change, they decided it was best to stop and make sure they did not hurt another group in order to win the recognition they craved. They have committed to reach out and talk with the Persian community in order to find a solution acceptable to all.

We applaud the actions of the Hindu Temple Association, and we hope that other communities including the Persians join in the effort to find a compromise. One noble gesture deserves another in return. It is only through honest dialogue that controversies like this can be resolved.

We urge all concerned to work together for the good of the community. We stand ready to help, if such help is requested.

—Frederik M. Fowler, Mayor of Sunnyvale

—Pete McHugh, Supervisor, Third Supervisorial District County of Santa Clara