Pass The Hate, Please! – I'll Take Another Serving!

Three newspapers at the local newsstand this morning reported the same thing, “Russell Henderson Pleads Guilty In Matthew Shepard’s Death.” In one fell swoop, Cal Rerucha made deal with the defense that will put a savage murderer behind bars for the rest of his natural life, saved Albany County a fortune that it did not have to prosecute the case and, hopefully, provided some small sense of justice to the family of Matthew Shepard.

At the same time, it proves a point I made previously: That hate crimes legislation is not needed to provide justice. (see Hates Me, Hates Me Not!) Regardless of the fact that Wyoming does not consider hate crimes any differently than otherwise motivated crimes, Henderson will die in prison. Justice was served without the addition of new laws that would ultimately bog down our judicial system and serve no other purpose than to pacify a few people who are dismayed with their own lack of control over the world around them. His alleged accomplice, Aaron McKinney, will go on trial beginning August 9. I have no doubt that justice will persevere in his case also.

For the last couple paragraphs and the last article I wrote on the subject of this gruesome murder I have primarily focused on my opinions of hate crimes legislation. Now it’s time to refocus and take a look at those on the other side of the fence. Let’s concentrate on the idiots who are making hate crimes legislation more and more acceptable to the general public. Let’s talk about the bigots and hypocrits who continue to preach the hate and intolerance.

On the Casper Star Tribune (April 6,1999) there is a picture of a half dozen or so people, including children, holding signs that say things such as, “God Hates Fags”, “AIDS Cures “Fags”, “No Special Laws For Fags”, “Fags Doom Nations”, and the most belligerent, “Matt In Hell”. The kicker though was in the caption below the picture that tells who the ‘protesters’ are. Members of the Topeka, Kansas, Westboro Baptist Church. It’s sad that anyone could hate so much that they could spew that kind trash. It’s even more unfortunate that people, especially ones who claim to carry God’s message, would teach their children to spew that kind of trash.

What is wrong with these people?! Have they become so blinded by their own hate that they truly believe that God shares their same inadequate emotional shortcomings? Are they so insecure in their own little worlds that they would protest the trial of a murderer because the victim did not pass their moral litmus test? Are they so uneducated that they don’t realize that AIDS kills thousands of people who would pass their moral litmus tests? As usual, stupidity and hate go hand in hand.

The statement that contains the most irony is the one that claims “Fags Doom Nations”. I’ve yet to learn of a nation that has fallen due to sexual orientation. I do, however, know for a fact that there have been many in our history that have fallen due to religious intolerance. As many have also fallen due to hate.

The world is full of dogmatists who can’t accept what they don’t understand. It’s also full of zealots who continuously seek to twist the world around them so they can get it under their control. Put the two together and you have the one thing that I can’t tolerate. A bigot.

There is enough hate in the world without organized religion becoming a harbinger of more. There is enough hate in the world, period. Let’s not let the death of one innocent man be used as an impetus to create more.

Peace.

Wisdom

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