Another Hate Crime :-(

[katharina]

The whole country is certainly volatile, isn't it? How sad for the guard at the Holocaust Museum... and his family. It seems like one of the safest buildings one could visit!

And the killer... ooops, I'm a journalist... "alleged" killer being so old and a former member of OUR military?! Can that be right?? With his name and age and other factors, I thought for sure it would be revealed that he was a Nazi guard or something and not an American soldier. I'm still having a problem believing that. Maybe they got it wrong?

What a sad day. And how does a person that age get sufficiently punished?

 

[heretoday]

I heard that the old man was known as a member of the American nazi party for some time. I think the rifle he shot the guard with, was so old it was untraceable. I guess that means he bought it before registering guns. It's serial number had either been filed off, or could simply have faded away with time and use.
These murderers are the folk that the different demagogues harvest like so many potatoes. Wrapping their mind around why "things are the way they are", either historically, economically, or through their own actions, are alien concepts to them. It's easier to think it's the Jew's fault. Or maybe Blacks, Gays, "illegal aliens", Asians, "Femi-Nazis," Liberals and/or Democrats, or "The Media". The airways are filled with these hate mongers, assuring the disaffected that some group is responsible for "everything." Someone picks up a gun, convinced that if they can kill the right person, "everything" will go back to the "way it used to be" or the "way they should be".
The hate-mongers never seem to have to carry their share of the penalty. They distance themselves from it all, or maybe never even address what happened. Karma, though, will make them pay their share of "the butcher's bill." (Yankee cavalry Gen Buford called it so during the Civil War, and it still has relevance today.)

 

[katharina]

I heard that the old man was known as a member of the American nazi party for some time.

Yes... and if he was on the FBI's "radar" we keep hearing about, how was he moving about so freely? Then again, what would anyone expect of a man this age? I was so sure it would turn out that he'd been a German Nazi... that would fit the profile better even if he ended up living here after the war.

 

[heretoday]

I saw one of the FBI spokespersons on the news, and I think he put it rather well. I'll try to paraphrase: people involved in hate groups or other unsavoury things like that still have their civil rights. It's not illegal to be a Nazi, and until something overt happens, like the other day, the person still has his rights intact. That's what keeps a democracy, I think that's what he was trying to say.
I also heard on the news that the guard who was killed was known as a "Gentle Giant." That makes it all the more heart-rending I think.

 

[katharina]

I saw one of the FBI spokespersons on the news, and I think he put it rather well. I'll try to paraphrase: people involved in hate groups or other unsavoury things like that still have their civil rights. It's not illegal to be a Nazi, and until something overt happens, like the other day, the person still has his rights intact.

I heard that, too... and I also heard they they usually know *exactly* where the line is about things such as what they can say in their websites and books (this guy had both)... the line that divides free speech and terroristic threats.

Gentle Giant yes, I heard that he rushed to open the door for "the old man" wanting to see the museum. So many senseless things in the world.

 

[SageMother]

it will be several generations, yet, before we see the push towards getting rid of organizations that encourage folks to think of themselves as more justified than others.

Everything from religion to education is leverage against accepting that one person cannot control the personal choices of another, nor can they punish people for being born different.

The first lessons all children should be taught don't originate in religious texts, but should be based on "knowing where you end and the everyone else begins".

If that can happen, that rage that results in attacks like this one, or 9/11, would have no place to grow.

 

[heretoday]

I agree wholeheartedly. Teaching kids the "golden rule" has it's limitations. "Knowing where you end and another person begins" takes in the whole of humanity, I think.

 

[katharina]

I agree wholeheartedly. Teaching kids the "golden rule" has it's limitations. "Knowing where you end and another person begins" takes in the whole of humanity, I think.

That's a very good sentiment and a very good thing to teach children... I
agree with that. Now how do we get people to actually teach it?

 

[heretoday]

That's really the crux of the question, katharina. The urge to violence in mankind is so close to the surface. The peacemakers are usually dispatched in a very violent way. Ironic, and heartbreaking.

 

[Twiceshy]

That's a very good sentiment and a very good thing to teach children... I
agree with that. Now how do we get people to actually teach it?

It's what you don't teach that makes the difference. If you don't teach people that the world is a "Black or white proposition, when it comes to your daily choices, but functions in shades of gray, meaning you have to think through each situation, a lot of that "us vs. them" hatred couldn't flourish, IMHO.