Sticking to my word

Yes. I've made it to a second post. Granted, it's overdue already, but...whatever.

I was in the midst of updating on Friday...but then I didn't. Luckily I got a Facebook message from Evan reminding me of what a bum I am, and I resolved to post at least once more before this entire experiment crashes and burns like usual.

Its finally nice and sunny outside, but for the past hour or so I've been inside, like a jerk, reading the Southern Poverty Law Center's website. For those of you who don't know what the SPLC is--it's a non-profit which does a lot of tracking and research of U.S. hate groups (KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc.) I landed on their website after doing a little research on the latest major hate crime event--the shooting at the Holocaust museum in DC. They have a really interesting map that shows the locations of all the different hate crime groups that they've identified around the U.S., including at least 14 groups in NYC. It's so hard for me to believe that a place like NYC, where I rode the subway with every race/color/creed imaginable on a daily basis, could have so many racist organizations.

Personally, hate crime has been in the front of my mind for quite a while now, after a murder that occured only a few towns over from my hometown on Long Island. Last November, an Ecuadorean man, Marcelo Lucero, was stabbed to death in Patchogue by seven teens who were out looking to attack "a Mexican". He was doing nothing but walking down the street to go to a friend's house, and had his life taken for absolutely no reason at all. I actually cried when I first heard about it happening, and I still get incredibly upset thinking about it. I guess, for me, the senselessness of it is just too much to bear.

Since last November, I've been paying attention to the news and following these kinds of crimes closely--in December, two Ecuadorian brothers were attacked in Brooklyn while walking arm in arm after a party (a cultural norm for them that their attackers viewed as homosexual posturing) and one died; just last month, a jury in Pennsylvania ruled the beating death of a Mexican immigrant last July by a few teens was not a hate crime.

Considering how closely I'd been paying attention, it didn't shock me to learn then that hate rhetoric has been on the rise on the internet this year, following Obama's election, according to CNN. Yet, CNN says that although rhetoric is on the rise and hate groups seem "riled up", there has been no evidence to prove that hate crime is up from 2008. And even though I'm a huge supporter of first amendment rights, I can't help but think, "Round them up now, so the violence never occurs."

I understand the slippery slope argument comes into play when you start prosecuting people based on just their thoughts, and not their actions, but I'm honestly starting not to care. While having a discussion with a friend recently about gay rights, and the ignorance that so many people still exhibit when discussing homosexuality, I came to the conclusion that I just lack all breadth of compassion for bigots and racists. The more I've considered it, the more I've come to realize I would have no problem with all of the KKK members, neo-nazis, and other various racists in this country being rounded up and put into detention somewhere. And yet, in a way, this makes me almost as intolerant as the racists in the first place. Or does it? I can't tell anymore.

Anyway, as I do continue to write in this blog, I think the content is going to be far more about sex, so look forward to that. (It's still going to be plenty about politics though, so watch out.)