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Posted on 06/13/2002 8:57:50 PM PDT by sheltonmac
The tolerance-mongers in Washington are at it once again. They are pushing for a tougher hate crimes bill that would make violent attacks based on someone's sexual orientation or disability a federal crime.
The way this bill has been presented, one would think that it is now perfectly legal to take a baseball bat and bludgeon an asthmatic homosexual. Of course, that isn't the case. If someone were to attack an asthmatic homosexual with a baseball bat, chances are the attacker would be charged with attempted murder or, at the very least, assault with a deadly weapon.
You have heard it said that justice is blind. There is a reason for that. Ideally, under the laws of this country, no one person is more special than another. The single mother with seven kids, living in a trailer park in Des Moines, is not to be treated any differently by the justice system than the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation living in a palatial fortress along the Malibu coast. That, in a nutshell, is the concept of "equal protection under the law." Contrary to what liberals would have you believe, that blindfold on the Lady of Justice serves a purpose.
But that isn't enough for some people. There are those who believe that an asthmatic homosexual is more equal than someone who has no problem blowing out the candles on a birthday cake and happens to be attracted to members of the opposite sex. Because of their unique status, asthmatic homosexuals deserve to have additional protections under the law that others simply do not have.
The reasoning-if you can call it that-behind any piece of hate crime legislation is that certain crimes can be deemed more heinous depending upon the motivation of the criminal. For example, if a person is shot and killed because of his sexual orientation, race or gender, it is supposedly worse than if that person were killed for money, jealousy or just plain sport. Sure, the victim is just as dead no matter what the motivation, but the purpose of hate crime legislation is to specifically punish the motivation of the attacker, not just the crime itself.
In the minds of most supporters of hate crime laws, the real crime was committed long before the trigger was pulled. If the attacker had not filled his own head with hateful and intolerant thoughts, he would not have felt the urge to kill in the first place.
Such crimes are viewed in a different light because-again, using the "reasoning" of the tolerance-mongers-they tend to impact society on a much larger scale. The Klansman terrorizing an old woman because of the dark complexion of her skin is not merely affecting the life of the woman upon whose lawn he plants a burning cross, he is actually lashing out at the black community as a whole, and his actions have adverse effects on the lives of all people of color.
The danger that comes along with any proposed hate crimes bill, and the desire to legislatively root out intolerance and hate, is the tendency to focus on the thought, not just the deed. I am convinced that the ultimate goal of the tolerance-mongers is the criminalization of not only hate speech but hate thought as well.
Sweden, our "enlightened" sister across the sea, already appears to be nearing that point. Lawmakers in the Scandinavian country narrowly passed a constitutional amendment that seeks to ban speech or materials opposing homosexuality and other alternate lifestyles. If the amendment passes another vote after the September elections, it would become effective next January.
Think about the impact that could have on American politicians. They have already expressed a desire to mirror Sweden's health care system. Is it too much of a stretch to imagine liberals in Washington wanting to emulate Sweden's intolerance for intolerance?
Fortunately, the current bill in the U.S. Senate suffered a major setback on Tuesday, but it will only be a matter of time before the issue rears its ugly head again. Judging from the hate crime bills that have already passed through Congress and state legislatures over the years, it is clear that Americans lack a basic understanding of the law. The question is, are we a nation where people are afforded equal protection under the law or not? That is a question lawmakers and citizens will have to answer before they can ever hope to seriously address the issue of "hate crimes" in America.
Yes...they should really call it what it is, not "hate crime", but "thought crime".
Tell that to the mainstream media, who canonized Anita Hill and vilified Paula Jones.
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