Hate crimes - more than just semantics

So, I've heard of holocaust deniers, Armenian genocide deniers, man-landing-on-the-moon deniers, global warming deniers and AIDS deniers, but this week I learned about a new type of denier: those who deny that Matthew Shepard's murder was a hate crime.

I guess I have Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to thank for teaching me something new.

Ultimately, her perspective of Shepard's murder as the byproduct of a drug-induced robbery is not new. The theory has been around since 2004, when ABC News ran a 20/20 feature exploring the concept. But here is what is important about the alternative theory of the crime. It has been debunked. Roundly. And by one of the assailants, who fully and completely confessed he knew Shepard's orientation and intentionally lured him into the situation that resulted in his being beaten, tied to a fence post and left for dead. "Guess what? We're not gay. You're gonna get jacked," said Aaron McKinney, one of two men serving life in prison for the crime, to a police officer. Later jailhouse letters contained additional damning testimony.

But I digress. My main gripe today is with Foxx. "The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that this young man was killed in the commitment of robbery. It wasn't because he was gay ... it's, it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”



One can almost imagine the disgust in her voice.

I'd love the opportunity to share with her my disgust.

Obviously, Foxx was not going to be able to get away with this. With the media breathing down her neck and her own colleagues denouncing her statement ("Matthew Shepard's mother was in the gallery yesterday ... I'm sorry she had to be around to hear it," said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn). "And I'd tell [Foxx] that man did land on the moon and the moon wasn't made out of green cheese."). She would indeed issue an apology.

Or would she?

Well, by the letter of the law, yes, I suppose one could say she apologized. Twice even. But you know those backhanded apologies that aren't really apologies but are more like passive-aggressive insults wrapped in insincerity? Yeah, Foxx's apologies were like that.



"I am especially sorry if his grieving family was offended by my statement ... Referencing [the 20/20] media account may have been a mistake, but it was a mistake based on what I believed were reliable accounts," she said.

Wait, does it sound like she is actually sorry she hurt Shepard's family with her words or that she regurgitated an egregious lie in the halls of Congress?

Foxx followed up that non-apology with another non-apology. "Saying that the event was a hoax was a poor choice of words. I've apologized for that," she said.

That’s like when I tell my sister after an argument that I'm sorry she thinks I'm wrong. Yeah, maybe not the most sincere of apologies.

For her part, Judy Shepard is having none of it. She has responded publicly several times over the last week, including Tuesday, May 5, at an appearance at the University of Cincinnati, that she declined to accept the so-called apology. Foxx, Shepard said, was only apologizing for the words she used, not the sentiment behind them. “It was ridiculous and stupid, and she is paying for it,” Judy Shepard said of Foxx's statement.

Despite Foxx's statement, the Matthew Shepard Bill (officially The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, H.R. 1913) passed the House, 249-175. Cincinnati-area Rep. Jean Schmidt voted against the bill, while Steve Driehaus voted for the bill.

I am certain I will never understand the hatred and fear with which some people approach homosexuality.

After all, as Judy Shepard said Tuesday, "We are who we are. We love who we love."

Swine flu renews anti-Hispanic sentiments (at least among idiots)

I knew this would happen. As soon as the swine flu began to dominate the media, I began to get a sick feeling in my stomach. And no, that bit of nausea wasn't actually related to the flu. It was related to the potential for a renewed and intensified bias against Hispanics and against Mexicans specifically.

I wish I had been wrong, wish I had overreacted.

But I wasn't. And I didn't.

Any nowhere has the rhetoric been more prevalent, stronger or more vile than in the world of talk radio.

Here is just a partial list of the disgusting things that supposedly intelligent, educated, so-called professionals have said concerning the connection between the Mexican population and the spread of the swine flu (which the CDC is now requesting we call the H1N1 flu):

"Make no doubt about it: Illegal aliens are carriers of the new strain ... of flu," said the particularly vile Michael Savage last week. "And it all starts in the restaurants," where he said, you "don't know if they wipe their behinds with their hands."

Really? Wow.

Savage went on to suggest that the new flu strain may be a part of a terrorist attack. “I can't say for sure,” he said too late, as the suggestion is already out there.

(In unrelated news, the BBC is reporting that the U.K. has a list of 16 people who are banned from the country - Savage is one of them. "This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," said Jacqui Smith, Britain's Home Secretary. Smart woman.)

Sean Hannity, during his syndicated radio show, said last week that, of course, the borders should be sealed, and that he finds it "suspicious" that the areas of the U.S. that are experiencing the greatest numbers of swine flu cases, New York, California and Texas, are among those with the highest Hispanic populations in the nation.

Boston talk-show host Jay Severin was suspended after calling Mexican immigrants “criminaliens” and stating that hospital emergency rooms were “essentially condos for Mexicans.”

Bill Cunningham has reportedly made another on-air “dirty Mexicans” comment (and apparently he has a long history of making derogatory comments about Mexicans).

And the list could go on and on (Neal Boortz, Lou Dobbs, Michelle Malkin, Betsy Perry).

And unfortunately, there are entire nations now joining the list of the overreacting and the ignorant.

The deputy Health Minister of Israel has requested that the affliction be renamed the Mexican flu, and the government of Hong Kong has detained and isolated hundreds of Hispanics and the people who have shared either airplanes or hotels with them.

The Cincinnati Enquirer even ran a story about Hispanic children in the area being bullied and teased about having swine flu. Jason Riveiro, of the Ohio League of United Latin American Citizens, reports that multiple parents have contacted him with complaints. The comment count on the story is at 133 and still rising.

In response to all the hatred and filthy language, Liany Arroyo, director of the national Council of La Raza’s Institute for Hispanic Health, points out the obvious.

Some people, Arroyo said, have opted to exploit the virus “as a mechanism to stir fear.”

Carlos Gutierrez, associate professor of Spanish at the University of Cincinnati who teaches a class on Hispanic culture in the United States, concurs with Arroyo.

“Hannity [for example] is just another unmoral, pharisaic voice that takes advantage of the worst weaknesses and fears that people harbor,” Gutierrez said. “The pointing of geographic and ethnic fingers whenever there’s an outbreak of something is an ugly business and a very old game that borders the xenophobic, to say the least.”

A very old game indeed. Gutierrez draws a comparison to the 16th century, when the French called syphilis the “Spanish sickness, while the Spanish and Italians called it the “French evil.” Similar scenarios can be cited throughout the ensuing 500 years of world history.

But what I don’t understand is why, in this day and age, people are still using this type of rhetoric, why they would want to scare the bejeezus out of their countrymen?

It is impossible, realistically, to definitively stem the spread of any epidemic in today’s world, and really, why waste time on assigning blame (although – for another time and another article I suppose – I firmly believe it is the massive factory farming that is to blame for the swine flu) when more efforts should be put into cure and prevention?

Won’t we ever get past this? Or will we just keeping doing the same things, saying the same things, over and over again, all while expecting some different outcome?

I, for one, hope for more.

Cincy Cinco - May 3, 2009

Photo treats - Here are a couple of my favorite photos from yesterday's Cincy Cinco event at Fountain Square.