Terrorism - Domestic Bigots More Dangerous than Foreign Terrorists :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

Domestic Bigots Cause More Damage than foreign Terrorists As the federal government preoccupies itself with fighting the war against terror, it must non neglect the terror that Americans can inflict on one other at home. At the same time, we should be circumspect about our hot air as we affirm our commitment to the ideals of freedom by debating our governments policies. The recent hatful of abominate crimes across the country - about 1000 incidents, some of them bleak - calls for two responses. Congress and the president should pass and sign national hate crimes legislation. On the local level, each of us has the obligation to refrain from rousing remarks that embolden and reinforce the bigots view that we are engaging in a war against a particular culture or religion. Whatever contributions economic or political injustice may have on the restrain for terrorist regimes, those organizations ultimately thrive on a zealotry borne of assort thought. This is spare in the t errorists calls for all sight of a certain free radical to concur up a jihad against the infidels who cannot claim the same group membership. In contrast, the battle that the United States is now waging is not directed at each group except for the people who commit mass eat up downstairs the influence of group identity. Americans are individualists at heart. We eschew the politics of racial division and ethnic pandering. We abhor discrimination, which violates anothers individuality by ascribing to him a group identity and subsequently mistreating him. We are especially appalled when the maltreatment escalates into assault, onslaught and homicide. Thus, in the 1993 Supreme Court case Wisconsin v. Mitchell, the justices unanimously upheld Wisconsins hate crimes statute, which compel additional penalties for perpetrators motivated by animus toward anothers race. The Court reasoned that settle and juries routinely consider a perpetrators motives as aggravating factors. For e xample, premeditated murder is punished more severely than random killing. Considering the criminals incline in sentencing is invariable with our juridical principles. However, it is not enough for a handful of states to consider bias as an aggravating factor in sentencing. We need to express the nations consensus that, as a liberal purchase order, we condemn the illiberal thoughts that inspire hate crimes. Treating people differently on the basis of perceived group identities, which derive in turn from superficialities like physical appearance, is the greatest unfreedom. While an orderly society cannot tolerate crime, a free society simply cannot tolerate crimes borne of ignorance and group thought.