WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT HATE

WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT HATE?

1.       Should the confrontation between the two neighbors really be classified as a hate crime, or should it be seen as a natural reaction?

2.       What should be classified as hate crimes?

3.       Should we show tolerance instead of trying to get rid of hate? Over time has society grown tolerant of things that would have caused hate crimes in the past?

I don’t believe that it is right to take someone’s life based on the color of their skin, their religion, or their gender.  The deaths of Matthew Shepard, James Byrd Jr., and Barry Winchell were unjustified and brutal and I don’t understand why someone would want to take another persons’ life due to things that that individual cannot control. Events such as murder or hurting someone based on their skin color or anything like that should definitely be considered a hate crime, but a confrontation between 2 neighbors where some anti-gay slur words are used is, yes rude but not a hate crime. Situations like rape, which is technically a hate crime towards women, should of course have consequences such as jail time.  However, with the case of the fight between the two neighbors, the one neighbor did not physically hurt the other but only voiced his opinion and put grass clipping on his porch. I’m not saying that what he did was not rude and hurtful, because I have been there where people have made very rude comments due to my religion; Catholicism. There is a line between hate crimes and making comments to another human being.  There are so many different forms of hate, that when it comes to what should be classified as a crime or not, it tends to get murky.

I believe that over the years people have grown tolerant of the situations but not hate. Society now has different views of gays, blacks, etc. Back then, there were more hate crimes because people didn’t know how to deal with their hate, and they didn’t see these people as real individuals with lives of their own. Through the years society has become tolerant of the situations and at times maybe the hate.