"It Makes Us Look Bad"
"The responsible white separatist community condemns this (the killing at the Holocaust Museum) It makes us look bad." John DeNugent a friend and fellow white supremacist of hater and killer, James W. Von Brunn..
In this day of hate talk radio, cable news and a daily parade of wing nuts making absurd, ugly and un-American utterances, you want to believe you’ve heard it all. Then comes the statement from Von Brunn’s political fellow traveler, John DeNugent, expressing his concerned that his friend’s actions has given hate and ignorance a bad name. Not to worry John. That was done once and for all during the Holocaust in Germany. That is why superhaters feel the need to deny it ever happened.
We have free speech in America and that rightfully prohibits using the criminal justice system to prevent even the most hateful speech. But that doesn’t mean that speech doesn’t have consequences. President Obama’s speech in Cairo has prompted discussions throughout the Mideast about how to set aside hate and move beyond old struggles. Conversely, everyday on talk radio commentators exploit fear and hate to earn a lot of money from their sponsors. Today, they are a little worried that the fires they have fanned will burn them. But they take solace in knowing that looking closely at the ugly side of human nature, which they exploit, is like looking at the sun. We instinctively turn away to protect ourselves from harmful exposure.
Is it an irony that the man who took the bullet for all the people at the museum yesterday was a black man, Stephen Tyron Johns, age 39? Or is it symbolic of the hate for Jews spilling over on a blackman just as it does in anti Semitic rhetoric
I can’t put Mr. Johns’ family out of my mind today. June is a month of rebirth and hope. It’s a hell of a hard time to loose a young family member who just yesterday seemed to have so much life ahead of them. It’s enough to make racial hatred “look bad,” if only it was enough to make sure none of us would ever reward the people who feed off from it.
In this day of hate talk radio, cable news and a daily parade of wing nuts making absurd, ugly and un-American utterances, you want to believe you’ve heard it all. Then comes the statement from Von Brunn’s political fellow traveler, John DeNugent, expressing his concerned that his friend’s actions has given hate and ignorance a bad name. Not to worry John. That was done once and for all during the Holocaust in Germany. That is why superhaters feel the need to deny it ever happened.
We have free speech in America and that rightfully prohibits using the criminal justice system to prevent even the most hateful speech. But that doesn’t mean that speech doesn’t have consequences. President Obama’s speech in Cairo has prompted discussions throughout the Mideast about how to set aside hate and move beyond old struggles. Conversely, everyday on talk radio commentators exploit fear and hate to earn a lot of money from their sponsors. Today, they are a little worried that the fires they have fanned will burn them. But they take solace in knowing that looking closely at the ugly side of human nature, which they exploit, is like looking at the sun. We instinctively turn away to protect ourselves from harmful exposure.
Is it an irony that the man who took the bullet for all the people at the museum yesterday was a black man, Stephen Tyron Johns, age 39? Or is it symbolic of the hate for Jews spilling over on a blackman just as it does in anti Semitic rhetoric
I can’t put Mr. Johns’ family out of my mind today. June is a month of rebirth and hope. It’s a hell of a hard time to loose a young family member who just yesterday seemed to have so much life ahead of them. It’s enough to make racial hatred “look bad,” if only it was enough to make sure none of us would ever reward the people who feed off from it.
Stephon Tyron Johns
Guard Killed in the line of duty,
victim of hate crime.