Rep. Keith Ellison on the Hate Crimes Prevention Act

[ncrainbowgrrl]

Run time: 01:11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBEnPvcDQ28   Posted on YouTube: May 03, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 06, 2007 By DU Member: ncrainbowgrrl Views on DU: 413

 
I wonder what the good representative from Virginia, Mr. Goode had to say about this great speech by Representative Ellison...

[glowing]

1. I'm not sure how I feel about making law about hate crimes.

Anytime someone breaks the law, there are punishments for their crimes. I'm not sure if legislating hate crimes will do more to unite Americans or if it would continue classifications of Americans. I do not like that anyone asks me if I am white, black, or some other ethnic or color or gender. Should we continue to highlight our differences or should we work to equalize the divide? If we are a living in the United States, aren't we all entitled to the rights and liberties that our constitution provides? Should we make yet another difference between "groups"?

I'm not trying to protect criminals here. I am just trying to discern whether we are better as a nation trying to group ourselves, or are we better trying to unite ourselves under the name of "American". Is one group supposed to be better than another? Why do we have classifications? How does that work to divide us? How does that work to unite us? Where do we want to take this United States? Do we want to remain united? I don't like the class/ grouping wars. Why are we afraid of other members of our community? Is there a real fear to be had? I don't think we should fear one another. And I think we need to stop being afraid to address differences and issues that are made around classifying different groups within the United States.

So, I'm not sure how I feel about this issue. I believe in community building... that much I am sure of. We are weak as individuals, but so much stronger by the masses. It's kind of like when 1+1 doesn't equal 2. Say you have 1 horse and he can pull a certain weight by himself and you have another horse and it can pull a certain weight by itself, but when you put the two horses together they can pull more than their normal 2 weights combined. So, I am not certain about continuing the divides in America.