America: 84% Hate
I received an interesting email today from Joe Solmonese. He's a citizen who's spearheading the effort to reclassify crimes based upon the victims' sexual orientation as hate crimes.
However, according to the US Senate, the general public is against the idea of labeling these types of crimes as "hate crimes." In fact, as quoted in the email:
Personally, I believe ALL violent crime stems from hate, but now we're trafficking in semantics. More to the point: what logical opposition is there to affording additional protection to people suffering outright violent discrimination?
Are we really supposed to believe that 84% of Americans -- or, at least, 84% of Hoosiers (5 out of every 6 who called Joe Donnelly) -- think torturing or killing someone because of their sexual orientation is somehow LESS offensive than committing the same act because of someone's race or gender?
Solmonese and his organization have a video as a call to action on their site. They'd like you to watch it and, if you believe in its message, spread the word to at least 5 people YOU know.
Perhaps we can turn the tide against that 84% who think some crimes are more okay than others.
However, according to the US Senate, the general public is against the idea of labeling these types of crimes as "hate crimes." In fact, as quoted in the email:
“I received nearly five times as many calls, emails and letters from opponents of [the hate crimes bill] as I did from its supporters."
- Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), after voting against the bill.
Personally, I believe ALL violent crime stems from hate, but now we're trafficking in semantics. More to the point: what logical opposition is there to affording additional protection to people suffering outright violent discrimination?
Are we really supposed to believe that 84% of Americans -- or, at least, 84% of Hoosiers (5 out of every 6 who called Joe Donnelly) -- think torturing or killing someone because of their sexual orientation is somehow LESS offensive than committing the same act because of someone's race or gender?
Solmonese and his organization have a video as a call to action on their site. They'd like you to watch it and, if you believe in its message, spread the word to at least 5 people YOU know.
Perhaps we can turn the tide against that 84% who think some crimes are more okay than others.
posted by Justin Kownacki at
10:47 PM
1 Comments:
Crime is binary. Either you got raped, maimed, or murdered, or you didn't. Motivation is irrelevant - the damage was either done or not, and therefore punishment is either due or not. If you kill someone because of race or sexual preference, they're just as dead as if you killed them because it was Tuesday. If the punishment doesn't seem commensurate to the crime, increase the punishment across the board. I vote for equality and non-discrimination - again, if the punishment seems too lenient, crank up the punishment for that general crime!
By
Christopher, at 9:30 AM
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