I just finished the latest installment of Snowfall's The Station's Late Night Princess tale as well as the newest update of Jem, by Bailey Summers. In many of the responses to the acts of violence perpetrated against the lead character in each tale I see people raging about 'hate crimes'. It is something that often comes up in the LGBT community.
Having borne the brunt of a few such actions instigated based upon prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, I cannot but help think that such crimes and their prosecution is another stigma branded upon the victims of these crimes. Is not every violent act a hate crime? Should not the 'equal under the law' banner apply to everyone equally? I realize that I may be in the minority but I feel that a crime of violence is exactly that. Whatever the motivation for the act, the act itself should carry the same penalty for all.
One of the reasons that I bring this up is the recent election and the violence that has been erupting around the world in the wake of same. Is causing a riot and attacking a person based on political beliefs a hate crime? Is it okay to stifle the rights and freedoms of another human being through violence because they are not followers of my own prejudices? How can I scream, "Love Trumps Hate" as I batter someone for not agreeing with me?
I am currently reading Bailey's Absinthe, Opium and Honor story, and it kinda crystallized my own thoughts as it points out the intolerance, prejudices, and bigotry that we within the LGBT community are increasingly practicing in the way we treat each other as well as those who disagree with us. We are different. We do not all fit into the same boxes. Why do we try to force others to do so?
My father is very ultra conservative. He raised my family in the U.S. Navy and I do not share his worldview. I am a progressive libertarian and have little in common with either the extreme left or extreme right in my country. I decry the fact that honest, free and open debate is no longer a part of the political and social landscape of my world. I am not in any way saying that we are the problem, but I wish we all tried harder to be a part of the solution.
There is just too much pain in the world without adding to it.
Love, Peace, and Happiness to All.
waif
Comments
Snowfall is a powerful writer
Snowfall is a powerful writer, I had tears in my eyes as I read her latest installment.
You know Jen, I have the same reaction to "Black Lives Matter". No one else's apparently does, just ask those marching under that poster.
To single out the different, and brutally attack them is, in my mind, a worse crime, since these attacks often happen to strangers. The penalty should be the same however.
It's that whole thing about
It's that whole thing about being 'different'. I do not need another reason for people to single me out as different and hate me over it. It sets people apart as a special class with special entitlements. Like Orwell writing, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
By the way, she is a powerful writer, but your writing is pretty powerful, too!
Be kind to those who are unkind, tolerant toward those who treat you with intolerance, loving to those who withhold their love, and always smile through the pains of life.
Semantics
I realize the word "hate-crime" has a legal status that makes it makes it something more than just a matter of semantics, and maybe it shouldn't be a special category of crime. Or maybe it's necessary for marginalized groups of people who otherwise have a hard time finding justice. I really don't know...
But in general I get quite confused by people's insistence that a certain word is particularly bad or destructive. And find the idea of improving the world by controlling everyone's words and phrasing---as if reality itself can thus be altered---simplistic at best. And while both the right and the left are adamantly engaged in this war over words Semantics gives me a headache...
Does that make me Anti-Semantic?
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
I have never been....
...anti semantic. I am, however, ANTI-EMPHATIC !!!!!!
Be kind to those who are unkind, tolerant toward those who treat you with intolerance, loving to those who withhold their love, and always smile through the pains of life.
The reason for Hate crimes is
the same as the assassination of a public official is considered more serious than just an attack on someone else. It is not just an attack against an person. Its an attack on all of society.
I consider...
...the death of free speech and open debate to be a greater crime than the death of any politician.
Be kind to those who are unkind, tolerant toward those who treat you with intolerance, loving to those who withhold their love, and always smile through the pains of life.
The Law is NEVER equal
In a city in my state three black girls took a white boy's skate board and nearly beat him to death with it. No one called it a hate crime. We are living in a politically correct charged time in history.. Gay Trump supporter beaten unconscious on Texas street by gay men. So was it a hate crime? They hate Trump who kept Obama's LGBT Law in effect.
Every single law that gives special rights to one group or class of people takes away rights from others. I've posted this before. Everyone in this day and age seems to want a law giving them special rights. The Bakery that refused to bake a wedding cake was fined and is now closed. Can we demand a Muslim bakery to make us a Christian cake and expect the same results? A Muslim restaurant to cook up a pork chop dinner?
Can I demand someone must rent, lease, or loan me what ever because of who and what I am? I'll never do it because their right to not like me overrides my right to demand my right under those laws I despise. Besides, I'm no longer cute, I'll never stop traffic in the street again, and I weigh 149 lbs not 132 so I'm fat. Maybe they might not like me because I'm old and fat? Where's the law giving old fat people special rights?
Once started down that slippery slope of special laws for only God knows who or what there is no end. In the end all our freedoms are gone because we gave away another right to hire, fire, rent, bake, live next to, along with a thousand other laws. I came into this world knowing who I was, who God was, and thinking I knew what was expected of me before I checked out. If I was right, I failed Him. If I'm right we are on an Event Horizon. We will either return to individual liberty or lose all rights. It's going to get messy either way.
This world is so full of greed.
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
You are unique !
Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
--Margaret Mead
Be kind to those who are unkind, tolerant toward those who treat you with intolerance, loving to those who withhold their love, and always smile through the pains of life.
What we need to teach is respect
That everyone has a right to be themselves provided it hurts no one else and that they respect the same right in everyone else. That means the right to believe or worship as we see fit, to vote as we wish, to dress or act as we wish providing it does no direct harm to anyone else. In doing so we need to respect the same in each other.
Alas there will always be those who insist their way is the only way to do whatever, in which case I know they're wrong. The sad thing is that many of us abuse freedom or think we no longer need to care about others, that life is just about personal acquisition of money, power, land etc.. It isn't, life is about relationships, about learning and about loving, without these no matter how much you accumulate you won't be happy, which may well be the case with a certain incumbent of the large white house on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Angharad
I recently discovered Dave
I recently discovered Dave Rubin. He has an interview program on Youtube and Patreon. I have watched how he deals with people on both extremes and always maintains decorum and civil discourse. If he was bi or straight I would so be in love with him.
By the way, I am at 2281 chapters into Bike.
Be kind to those who are unkind, tolerant toward those who treat you with intolerance, loving to those who withhold their love, and always smile through the pains of life.