Eggshells

What's with Canada's strict “hate crimes” or “hate speech” these days? If you read at all you know of Ernst Zundel , who has been "arraigned in Germany on charges of inciting racial hatred and defaming the memory of the dead." Most recent David Ahenakew, is facing a "criminal charge that he was willfully promoting hate against an identifiable group when he told a Saskatoon Star Phoenix reporter on Dec. 13, 2002, that the Jews were a "disease" and Hitler was trying to "clean up the world" when he "fried" six million of the "guys" during the Second World War." Well, at least he's not denying the 6 million.

My question with the uproar regarding these guys, who both may be no more than assholes with opinions, is where do we draw the line? I've heard similar and worse attitudes, by and about other ethnic groups, said by folks in living rooms and boardrooms. Why are these two particular men criminals for voicing a prejudice held by millions? Is it a warning to not question or think or go into tirades about a particular ethnicity? "Defaming the memory of the dead?" Don't get me started on Reagan, the Pope, or other dead heroes.

Who owns the media and intentionally promoted a Black face on "welfare queen" and "drug dealer?" Who promoted the liberal's face on society's decay, for all the sin, abortion, crime, teen sex, drugs, AIDS, plagues, job loss, war, evil doers, and the WTC attack, etc. Have you ever lurked in conservative chat rooms? Not neonazi sites but any general forum? Some of the most inciting remarks by average Americans can be read, "promoting hate against an identifiable group"; Blacks, Hispanics, gays. The same conservatives who scream the disease of "tolerance" ruined the country are the first to demand their own bigotry be tolerated.

Why are we not arresting members of hate groups, or any of the 500 hate organizations (according to SPLC) across the United States? Is it because their targets are predominantly Sponge Bob cartoonicide, nonwhites and gays? Who has the power to criminalize a thought against one group and not another? From Roosevelt's nation of walk softly and carry a big stick we've become the loudest biggest stick, and walk on eggshells when it comes to the you-know-who group.