As a school boy (that was a long time ago) I was required to read George Orwell’s book “1984”. I can honestly say I do not remember anything from that book other than I read it many years prior to 1984. I say this because I was challenged to take a fresh look at this Orwell classic recently. As you may or may not be aware this week the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill that would protect a particular segment of the population from so called “hate crimes”. The segment of the population that this bill will protect isn’t in danger because of race, ethnicity, or cultural make up. It isn’t even being protected because of its inability to protect itself like those laws that protect the weakest among us, no this bill will protect a group of people because of a behavior.
In the book “1984” Orwell warned that even our thoughts can get us into trouble and subject to criminal prosecution by Big Brother. We are about to witness this prophecy take place. In his commentary today at Breakpoint Chuck Colson even warned that attempts to modify this terrible bill, to modify it chilling effects went unheeded. Unless we raise our voices against this type of special interest legislation we could soon find ourselves subject to Orwellian like Thought Police.
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Great minds think alike.
I just finished sending my US Representative an email regarding the pending hate crime legislation. Here it is.
H.R.1592, Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 is being prepared for a vote. I am asking you to vote no.
A black, homosexual female is murdered. At the same time my Caucasian, heterosexual, male child is murdered. Why is the first murder worse than the second? I would be greatly upset if my son’s murderer got a lighter sentence than the other murderer, solely because my son was not part of the ‘special’ class of people.
There are laws on the books to prosecute criminal acts. If those laws need to be strengthened for all people, let’s get it done. If current laws are good enough for some criminal acts, they are good enough for all criminal acts.
I oppose any ‘Hate Crime’ legislation and would prefer that existing legislation be repealed. Since the current Congress will never do that I certainly do not see any reason to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the existing list. This bill fixes a problem that does not exist and will only create new problems in the future.
All crime is driven by greed or hate. Assault is assault and murder is murder. Why someone commits a crime should not matter when it is time for sentencing. To have longer sentences for the same crime violates the 14th Amendment, section 1 equal protection clause. I can only hope that President Bush has his veto pen at the ready to prevent this bad legislation from becoming law.
Here is an update. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass their 'hate crime' legislation. Fortunately, President Bush has said he will veto it.
Here is the list of who voted yes.
Abercrombie, Ackerman, Allen, Altmire, Andrews, Arcuri, Baca, Baird, Baldwin, Bean, Becerra, Berkley, Berman, Biggert, Bishop (GA), Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Bono, Boswell, Boucher, Boyd (FL), Boyda (KS), Brady (PA), Braley (IA), Corrine Brown, Butterfield, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, Carson, Castle, Castor, Chandler, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Clyburn, Cohen, Conyers, Cooper, Costa, Costello, Courtney, Crowley, Cuellar, Cummings, Davis (AL), Davis (CA), Davis (IL), DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Dent, L Diaz-Balart, M Diaz-Balart, Dicks, Dingell, Doggett, Doyle, Edwards, Ellison, Emanuel, English (PA), Eshoo, Etheridge, Farr, Ferguson, Filner, Frank (MA), Frelinghuysen, Gerlach, Giffords, Gilchrest, Gillibrand, Gonzalez, Al Green, Gene Green, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hall (NY), Hare, Harman, Hastings (FL), Sandlin Herseth, Higgins, Hill, Hinchey, Hinojosa, Hirono, Hodes, Holden, Holt, Honda, Hooley, Hoyer, Inslee, Israel, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Jefferson, Johnson (GA), Jones (OH), Kagen, Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kennedy, Kildee, Kilpatrick, Kind, Kirk, Klein (FL), Kucinich, Kuhl (NY), LaHood, Langevin, Lantos, Larsen (WA), Larson (CT), Lee, Levin, Lewis (GA), Lipinski, LoBiondo, Loebsack, Zoe Lofgren, Lowey, Lynch, Mahoney (FL), Maloney (NY), Markey, Marshall, Matheson, Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum (MN), McCrery, McDermott, McGovern, McNerney, McNulty, Meehan, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Michaud, Miller (NC), George Miller, Mitchell, Mollohan, Moore (KS), Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Murphy (CT), Patrick Murphy, Murtha, Nadler, Napolitano, Neal (MA), Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Pallone, Pascrell, Pastor, Payne, Pelosi, Perlmutter, Platts, Pomeroy, Porter, Price (NC), Pryce (OH), Rahall, Rangel, Reichert, Reyes, Rodriguez, Ros-Lehtinen, Rothman, Roybal-Allard, Ruppersberger, Rush, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Linda T Sánchez, Loretta Sanchez, Sarbanes, Saxton, Schakowsky, Schiff, Schwartz, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, Sestak, Shays, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Sires, Skelton, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Snyder, Solis, Space, Spratt, Stark, Stupak, Sutton, Tauscher, Thompson (CA), Thompson (MS), Tierney, Towns, Udall (CO), Udall (NM), Van Hollen, Velázquez, Visclosky, Walden, Walsh (NY), Walz (MN), Wasserman Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, Welch (VT), Wexler, Wilson (OH), Woolsey, Wu, Wynn, Yarmuth
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