By: Truthiz

Truthiz — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:22:39 +0000

Andrew Sullivan opposes “Hate Crimes” laws because he strongly feels they could lead to the unintended consequence of doing more harm than good. As he recently expressed on his blogsite, his thoughts on the matter have not changed since writing an essay about it in Sept. 1999.Excerpt: What’s So Bad About HateDo we not owe something more to the victims of hate? Perhaps we do. But it is also true that there is nothing that government can do for the hated that the hated cannot better do for themselves. After all, most bigots are not foiled when they are punished specifically for their beliefs. In fact, many of the worst haters crave such attention and find vindication in such rebukes. Indeed, our media's obsession with "hate," our elevation of it above other social misdemeanors and crimes, may even play into the hands of the pathetic and the evil, may breathe air into the smoldering embers of their paranoid loathing. Sure, we can help create a climate in which such hate is disapproved of — and we should. But there is a danger that if we go too far, if we punish it too much, if we try to abolish it altogether, we may merely increase its mystique, and entrench the very categories of human difference that we are trying to erase. For hate is only foiled not when the haters are punished but when the hated are immune to the bigot's power. A hater cannot psychologically wound if a victim cannot psychologically be wounded. And that immunity to hurt can never be given; it can merely be achieved………For all our rhetoric, hate will never be destroyed. Hate, as our predecessors knew better, can merely be overcome. Complete Essay: http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/1999…

By: Truthiz

Truthiz — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:51:28 +0000

Well done! Well done indeed!

By: frisco415

frisco415 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:54:19 +0000

This made me cry. I am happy and speechless all at the same time!THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA!!

Comments on: HATE CRIMES BILL SIGNED INTO LAW

By: Truthiz

By: Truthiz

By: frisco415