The man speaking (I did not catch the name) pointed out that "Anyone can say anything, and that what they say can drive others to violence."
He went on " It does not matter WHO is spewing the rhetoric, Conservative or liberal; Democrat or Republican; Christian or Atheist."
See the problem here with making laws about hate speech is the constitution guarantees us the right to say whatever we want... PERIOD!
"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech!"
This is in the First amendment. Look here for more.
Now as I posted in the first "again" article, We need to consider where the founding fathers were coming from.
This amendment is the same one guaranteeing our religious freedom so this won't be that much of a stretch.
One of the things faced by the pilgrims; And come to think of it by the founding fathers themselves, was that they were not allowed to speak things that might be hurtful even though they were true.
They were fomenting rebellion! they could have been hanged for just saying "gosh that King George, He sure seems to be behaving cruelly."
They saw that kind of power as being tyranny. So they made certain that, that form of tyranny would not be allowed on U.S. Soil.
They saw it as wrong that the government would/could punish them for speaking out against a person (or people) truthfully who the crown (aka the government) favored.
But that is exactly what the idea behind the hate speech/crime acts is about!
I would like to take a moment here to point out that this does NOT apply to lies and verbal attacks that have no merit.
But really this is all secondary! See the real problem is that this can be used to attack innocent people.
If a pastor says something about how the old testament regards homosexuality, and someone in hearing of his statement decides to go burn down the house of a homosexual, that pastor, According to this concept, can be held accountable.
But in that case I guess we better all stop talking because we never know what it is that we might say (or for that matter what we might NOT say) that could send someone over the edge.
I would hate to be held responsible for an abortion clinic to be blown up because I said something about the eggs I got at the supermarket and I was misunderstood.
Worse even then that is the point that Anyone could say I said ANYTHING and I would be held guilty and accountable... EVEN IF I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!
Think about it...
And again I need to point out that this legislation does not work for everybody, if you doubt the way this is going consider the prop 8 vote in California.
The people who voted in favor of stopping same sex marriage were vilified! they were "evil and Hateful." they were "bigoted Hatemongers." so the media would have us believe.
But what the Media did NOT report was that some rather militant groups of homosexuals deliberately destroyed personal and public property ( particularly if it belonged to people who "voted against them") and they threatened, harassed and behaved violently towards people who voted in favor of the ban.
But they were not prosecuted. if it had been the other way around not only would they have had the book thrown at them, they would have been plastered all over the news for everyone to see.
Don't believe that?
What happened at Duke University?
The Lacrosse team was blamed for Rape and violence against an African American. And the American public was very quick to condemn the men blamed.
When they were PROVEN innocent all of a sudden it became a non story. ( no one bothered to tell us how those men suffered for being wrongly accused. They were, in short, victimized by the accuser. (And our society.)
Did you hear about this one though? Click here.
Here we find a Homosexual man living near Duke who raped his 5 year old son, filmed it and broadcast it online. He also offered the boy in prostitution.
Where is the media attention at for this?
Why is it a story when it is one side but not the other?
See this is what they call a double standard. And that is exactly what we will get with the "Hate crimes" legislation.
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