In my quest to avoid using expletives, I am starting to sound like Yosemite Sam...
Can there be ANY serious minded, reasonable person in America who does not recognize that this crosses the line? If we are going to have the sham of "hate crimes" and purport the right to judge motivations and thoughts, isn't this clearly a candidate for such legislation? The lazy approach of Prang, dismissive to the point of arrogance, is both alarming and repulsive.
Seriously now...does anyone REALLY believe that an effigy of Obama would get the same treatment, Halloween not withstanding?
I say this on the eve of an election I really do believe will call into question the value of polls for years to come (Zach & I have wagered cigars on the outcome...I fully expect to be enjoying the cigar he buys me Nov 8th...), and I say this because there is a great amount of hatred in our nation for those we disagree with politically--to the extent that I think there are solid arguments against Christians pouring themselves into the political game, because it is so destructive to healthy, positive discussions...and the most important discussions we can have aren't about taxes, or wars, or health insurance, Social Security, immigration, marriage or even abortion.
Of course, these are also important discussions...and as a Christian in a Democratic Republic I think we do have responsibility to participate...and obviously I do...but this is an issue I have spent some time thinking seriously about.
This matters because, if I get the pleasure of smoking my victory cigar this Wednesday, there will be a lot of violently angry people out there crying "Fraud!" Part of this is because of the disgracefully lop-sided way the news has portrayed the campaigns of McCain and Obama...part of this is because losing is a hard thing to do.
What concerns me is the passivity we display in the face of increasingly violent frustration being expressed by people who disagree with the politics of those elected. Those people who hate Bush talk about the President in a way that should disturb us.
Of course, the Left (though guilty of doing it more, in my opinion) is not alone in violent expressions of their angst. Obama has certainly been the target of violent anger from some on the Right. There are people who talk about Obama in ways that cannot be denounced strong enough; my concern stems from the fact that the one-sided-ness that has favored Obama for 2 years has also failed to denounce the violent rage on the Left in the same way it has chastised it on the Right.
Call basketball players "nappy headed-hoes" on an entertainment show will get you fined, sued, fired, and censored. Hanging the woman running for VP in effigy doesn't even result in a fine or an order to cease and desist.
The Sheriff should be ashamed of this decision. But, of course it's not a real problem, and West Hollywood somehow doesn't care...since this indifference is directed towards someone the community despises.
Whitmore said that potential hate crimes are evaluated
on a case-by-case basis. If the same display had been made of a Barack
Obama-like doll, for example, authorities would have to evaluate it
independently, Whitmore said.
"That adds a whole other social,
historical hate aspect to the display, and that is embedded in the consciousness
of the country," he said, adding he's not sure whether it would be a hate crime.
"It would be ill-advised of anybody to speculate on that."
2 comments:
Steve is not a Sheriff
You know, when you're right you're right. I mis-read...I'll ammend it shortly...Thanks for the catch...he's a spokesman for bad thinking...but not the actual Sheriff.
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