Some Gave All

There is a situation exemplified at townhall.com that I call an Unholy Alliance. You have two disparate groups who have come together in their mutual hatefulness, narrow-mindedness and fear. Many of the authors there claim to be Christians but most of the regular visitors do not. And I know from personal experience that these two groups really do not like each other. To listen to them you wonder how they could possibly feel qualified to adjudicate any complex matters at all. They are out of touch with reality, they have no use for facts that do not suit them and they have become a powerful force to be reckoned with. A “noise machine.”

While many Americans have their own daily endeavors and struggles to attend to, they feel like have no real stake in what has become a high stakes environment in Washington. Still, they have always felt that their leaders ultimately would do the right thing. Those days are gone.

Many of the people who go to townhall.com to “vent” and “express” themselves don’t seem to have a real grasp of the sacrifices it took to make this country what it is today. It was not your parents’ – Bush’s – generation who built this country. It was your grandparents. They are the ones who wanted something better for their children and were willing to work hard and live simply to make that happen.

Bush’s generation seems only concerned about what the country can do for them. They disdain the disadvantaged just as they disdain other people in the world that disagree with them. They have no use for the very system that made it possible for them to be successful – now you are on your own. They have no grand vision for this country.

What is so scary to some of us is their certainty in their own righteousness. And, if you dare to question or speak out then you are unpatriotic, or worse, treasonous. They don’t blink. You do not criticize your leaders during a time of war. They can do no wrong. How convenient then to take advantage and push through as much legislation as possible that will benefit them.

Then there are the veterans. I have a great respect for the sacrifices they have made. And they certainly have a right to voice their opinions about this war. And I understand the military mindset, the machismo. But, maybe they should be reminded, also, as Ernest Hemingway, himself a battle-tried veteran said, the real heroes, the people who really fought the wars, are not here to talk about it. Some gave all.

May 11, 2007

Hate Crime Laws - Reverse Discrimination

Many of the conservatives on the Internet do not seem to understand the concept of a hate crime law. They were up in arms about a vicious attack on a young white couple by some black youths that didn’t receive enough national attention, in their opinion. They said this should be considered a hate crime, that all violent crimes are committed with hate. I do not know the extent of the torture in this case. I did not read the article.

George Will is clearly an educated, highly intelligent man. Nevertheless, he cannot grasp the significance of a hate crime law? I’m not buying it. He says it is “enhanced punishments for crimes committed because of thoughts that government especially disapproves…Mind-reading juries are required to distinguish causation from correlation.”

Hate crime laws are necessary when there has been a history of violence and cruelty toward minorities and where the abusers have the power to get away with it. Motive is a fundamental component of our justice system and always has been.

It is a very hateful country we live in and I don’t know why when everybody here has it better than most of the people in the world. That’s not to say that there is not real suffering. The hatred displayed in these articles and posts is palpable. The thing that strikes me most about you people is that you only look at a situation – any situation – how it affects you.

I’m an outsider. I have experienced your wrath, you’ve called me names, made a lot of assumptions but mostly just refused to listen to what I have to say. I know what I’m talking about.

People like you who have had it with affirmative action and hate crimes and the politically correct this and that have never considered for one minute what it would be like to be that black child in that moment of realization that your world is not what it seems. Talk about losing your innocence. Talk about having your childhood snatched away.

It’s an ugly, ugly thing. And you people have never owned it and you’re not fooling anybody.

May 5, 2007