Free Press Reaction

I found the responses to Patrick Leahy letter very surprising coming from what I assume are members of or near the Burlington area. I assumed they would all be for hate crime legislation and have very liberal views on this situation. To my surprise, this wasn't the case. They were actually all views that I feel the same way about. As a country we have been fighting for equality in all aspects one can think of. Putting certain groups into a new law that protects them isn't creating equality it is separating them from the rest of the public. I personally don't agree with hate crime laws. "Hate" isn't illegal, and if it ever becomes illegal I think people will have to start rethinking about their surroundings. I personally feel that yes no one likes to be hated in any situation, but people need to become adults and stop pointing the finger at someone because they said something that offended them. Its part of life, its part of our rights, thats why we do it. As the gay conservative person says in the reading its only going to make people more pissed off and hate even more people. Hate crime laws seem to protect blacks and homosexuals, I dont see anything in there about protecting white people. If someone punches me and they were black and I try to say that it was a hate crime, people would laugh at me because for some reason I feel people don't think you are able to illegally hate a white person. You can obviously see my opinion on this situation and how I feel that it is unnecessary to increase a jail sentence because someone hated someone else. I guess what I'm trying to get at is we should give up on the idea of equality because its never going to happen, someone or group will always be treated better then the other. Thats just the way of life.