Pam’s House Blend: If someone is attacked in North Carolina based on sexual preference, it is not considered a hate crime. North Carolina is one of 20 states where sexual orientation is not covered by hate crime laws. One state senator believes it is time the law is changed.

Ah, dang it, here comes one of the few issues that makes me agree with conservatives, and I hate it when I agree with conservatives. I left this comment for Pam:

Pam, other liberals, forgive me, but I have disdain for all “hate crimes” laws. We are increasing penalties on assault and murder based on what a person thinks about the victim, and that seems very Orwellian to me.

Don’t get me wrong; I find assault against gays, minorities, or sects solely on the basis of sexuality, race, or religion to be abhorrent. But I find all assaults against any human being to be revolting.

I think of the message sent by a non-hate crime. Suppose one white guy is beating another white guy solely because guy #1 wants to rob guy #2. Or guy #2 slept with guy #1’s wife. Or guy #1 is simply a sociopath with time to kill. Why should this crime receive less punishment simply because guy #1 was the same race as #2 and didn’t beat him out of homophobia, racism, or anti-Semitism? To punish “hate crimes” more stringently means you’re punishing non-“hate crimes” less stringently.

I would prefer that all crimes of assault, rape, and murder were treated as hate crimes and sentenced appropriately. Hit a human, go to jail for a long time, period.

I know the counter-argument has to do with the assault having a chilling effect on the entire community. I can buy that line of reasoning in the case of painting swastikas on synagogues or burning crosses in yards. Then we’re talking about things and symbols.

But when we’re talking about humans, I resent legislation that further divides us by race, religion, and orientation. If we are all to be treated equally in the eyes of the law, how can we justify treating a racist homophobic bully differently than your garden-variety bully?

(Other than this “hate-crimes” thing, I’m still a dyed-in-the-wool leftie moonbat, so please don’t flame me! Give me a counter-argument that will change my mind.)

And yes, I do know that we have other laws that take into account the mindset of the perp, like the difference between 1st, 2nd, & 3rd-degree homicide. But even then, the perp’s mindset is blind with respect to color, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

I just believe that part of the reason we continue to have so much racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-religionism, etc., is that we continue to define ourselves by those lines as if it matters. I don’t refer to my best friend as “my black best friend”, he’s just “my best friend”. Black is irrelevant. Similarly, my wife’s friends are just that, not “my wife’s gay friends”. Gay is irrelevant. Just like I don’t refer to my female cousin as “my redhead cousin” or my co-worker as “my blue-eyed co-worker”.

I’m not so dumb as to think there is no racism, etc., and that race, etc., is always irrelevant. It is relevant in the context of someone being discriminated against for those features. And I always laugh at the ultra-politically correct who can’t ever call upon obvious physical traits for fear of being branded “racist”, for example, my best friend standing in a room full of white folks and the person asks, “do you know that guy there… him… in the t-shirt… the one with the red stripes… he’s got longish hair… kinda short…” Oh, you mean the one black fellow standing in the room full of white guys? No one hesitates to point out the only blonde in a room full of brunettes or the basketball player in the room full of jockeys. And strangely enough, no one discriminates against blondes or tall guys (OK, sure, maybe it does happen, but work with me here) and no one can be convicted of a hate crime for beating up a blonde or a tall guy.

Maybe I’m being naïve; probably, being a straight white guy who grew up in a lily-white peaceful Idaho suburb. But I just think we could go a long way toward insuring equality for all if we stopped highlighting the differences between us and started appreciating what makes us alike. Like deciding that one of us beating another of us has a chilling effect on all of us.