Hate Crime--Detroit

I don't get the whole "hate crime" thing. Once this guy was dead, what difference does it make what flimsy excuse the jerk made for hitting him upside the head with a lead pipe? Dead is dead. Murder is murder. In my opinion, the perpetrators of "hate crimes" are not deterred by stiffer sentences. They either don't think they will get caught, or don't care if they get caught.

That being said, I received this email from a friend of mine in the gay community, and totally agree that this garbage has to stop. I don't know that further legislation is going to do it, but I reckon it can't hurt.

"Hatred is not a gay/straight, black/white, catholic/protestant issue; it is a disease that will eat at the basic fabric of our freedom. We all in the court system are caring individuals; why else would we set our goal to be a Monarch and spend all our money to reign. We do it because we can and those who need our help, needs us. Everyone receiving this email should SPEAK UP and do it now. A 72 year man lost his life because of hatred and we all would make our voices hear if it was our grandfather, father, friend or someone else's relative. Please do it for the friends and family of Andrew Anthos; and for all of our right to be safe and who we are.

"http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070224/METRO/702240351/1003

http://www.wwj.com/pages/268139.php?contentType=4&contentId=350347

Here are a couple of links to the story, from the Detroit papers.Crimes like this one make me ill. To think that there are people out there whose only criterion for evaluating or judging their fellow man is the very narrow one of sexual orientation is a puzzlement to me.

You put all the good that this man did in his lifetime on one side of the scale, and his sexual orientation on the other, and that one little thing makes the scale go "THUD." And a scumbag feels justified in clubbing a 72-year-old man upside the head with a lead pipe. That's much like deciding if a person has a right to live, based on whether or not you and he like the same kind of music.

As my friend Melissa used to say, "In the Grand Scheme of Things, what can it possibly matter who sticks what into whom?"