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Date Posted: 12:25:32 06/11/03 Wed
Author: Trevor/TJ
Subject: Sorry if I phrased it poorly
In reply to: Pepper 's message, "I agree with Tom. Whether or not you support Hate Crime Legislation, to throw out something like why not have laws to protect short people or redheads beneath a post that includes a picture of Matthew Shepard really offends me. When you think of the list of gay people, the list of black people, the millions of Jews, who have died because of hate, to joke about short people and redheads being equally persecuted? I'm sorry but it just seems like a very insensitive thing to say." on 02:23:37 06/11/03 Wed

Bester expressed most of my feelings, including his last paragraph, much better than I did, so feel free to ignore my blather and read his (non-blather.)

I am certainly moved and disturbed by the death of Matthew Shepard. Bashing and teen suicide are WHY I'm making some tough choices in my personal life right now rather than just going with the flow, and to a large degree why I am participating here.

My point about band-aid laws is they fix a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. The license tabs was an example - one particular symptom was fixed without looking at the whole "system". Granted, "fixing" biogotry in society is not trivial, and passing these laws would be much easier.

My point with redheads and short people was not a joke - they are minorities and I'm sure there are bigots who bash them, too, somewhere. Yes, I certainly realize they are not generally persecuted to the extent of gays and jews and other minorities - but where do we draw the line? (Okay, yes, I AM anal retentive!)

Maybe I'm overly idealistic, but laws should truly be fair to everyone - that's the basis of our consitution of the US. If hate crimes laws, by necessity, single out groups, I can see how they *could be considered* to protect "special interest groups."

I know, I know, we (minorities) only want fair and equal treatment, not "special treatment." But, by naming certain groups, I can see how some resonable, if uninformed individuals (which I think many voters are - reasonable yet uninformed - including myself, but hey I'm workin' on it!) could consider this to be "special interest" even though that's not the intent, purpose, or effect.

So, if we DO have "hate crime laws", I think we need to define Hate Crimes without mentioning any SPECIFIC minorities and I don't know if that can be done without being vague to the point of uselessness.

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Replies:

who is tom whether? -- Pat Collins, 18:02:05 11/08/09 Sun