Ma'am; ...You are like tha blind man who climbed Everest for the view... He got there the same way as everybody else, and you are getting there too... Law has been the monumental failure of Western Society...It does not give vengeance and it does not give justice, and the more of it you have, the more of it you need until the whole society is overburdened with Law...In some respects, this anti hate crimes legislation is meant to do all that the Anti Gun Lobby wants...They know it is easier to organize a multitude of heathens around a kernal of hate than it is to get a family together for a picnic... And there is plenty to hate in this land, and some of it is legitimate...But Hate is Fear, and if people cannot talk about their fears, and their hates, no matter how unwarranted, then they will not be addressed and cured... So much of the talk on the right, even com
ing out of the churches is not motivated by love, patriotism, or understanding; but is meant to play upon the fears, the ignorance, and the parochialism of the country people... They do not understand the assault on virtue the city dwellers face... They do not help the city person guard his or her virtue...Rather, they cheer the cause and hate the effect... They do not understand that the forces whittling away at their lives, and livelyhoods, and virtue have been working their poison into the heart of our society for a long time...And it is legal, just as it was once legal to hound homosexuals from burg to burg until they found a populous place to hide, and just as it was legal to bind freed blacks into servitude if they were without employment, or to hang them from trees if they were surly...I do not think we can have a society where the citizens of one section or set of beliefs can visit their prejudice upon others without danger... I do not think we can have a society where morality and virtue are constantly under assault... And we cannot have a society overburdened with laws supporting a whole class of parasites from police, and lawyers, and judges, and prison guards; because we simply cannot afford what does not work... The more law we have the more law we must have until we go broke supporting it... We do not need law, but a sense of who we are, and what moral behavior is... We cannot find who we are while the most immoral of people are driving wedges of law and hate between us... If we could talk out our differences where we should be able to, and cannot now, in the halls of government, then we would not feel as though we need to act out of frustration...The problem is not going to go away...It will not go away with more law, or more people broadcasting hate and fear... We need to talk to each other, and not at each other to find some common ground; and throwing people in prison for their opinions is not going to help...Thanks..Sweeney