Three incidents and counting.
If yesterday’s Holocaust Museum slayingof security guard and national hero Stephen Tyrone Johns is not aclarion call for banning hate speech, I don’t know what is. PlaywrightJanet Langhart Cohen appeared on CNN yesterday right after theshooting, as she wrote a play that was supposed to have been debuted atthe Holocaust Museum last night. Her play is about Emmett Till, whoselynching helped launch the Civil Rights Movement, and Ann Frank, whosediary told the story of Holocaust victims in hiding in the Netherlandsduring World War II.
She said something must be done aboutridding the Internet and the public dialogue of hate speech. I agree.Not only have we had three hate crime murders within the last two weeks(Mr. Johns, as noted above, Dr. George Tiller a week ago last Sunday,and Pvt. William Andrew Long by an American-born Muslim convert outside a recruiting station just before that.)Now we have this quote from the so-called Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who used to be President Obama’s pastor. Hate comes from among all peoples and all religions. He said this about his lack of communication with Barack Obama since he’s been elected president, according to the AP:
“ThemJews ain’t going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter thathe’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight yearswhen he’s out of office,” Wright told the Daily Press of Newport Newsfollowing a Tuesday night sermon at the 95th annual Hampton UniversityMinisters’ Conference.
It’s not enough to prosecute thesemurders as murders. They are hate-motivated crimes and each of thesemen had been under some sort of police surveillance prior to theiractions. Isn’t it time we started rounding up promoters of hate beforethey kill?