Nobody Will Abuse This Legislation

A hate crime bill was drafted in Congress yesterday which could potentially give protection to pedophiles. This is not the intent of the bill, but the current wording can be misinterpreted to cover pedophiles. When this potential misinterpretation was brought up, and an amendment to exclude pedophiles was proposed, the drafter became quite angry. She said it was offensive, and I can understand her point, but not her stance.

The potential pedophile protection (say that 3 times fast) would fall under the protection for crimes based on sexual orientation. This is what she found offensive. That both homosexuality and pedophilia are grouped together under sexual orientation. The problem with that is that heterosexuality falls under that same categorical umbrella. She was quite adamant about her offense and waved off the objection by stating that nobody would interpret the bill that way. But who ever would have thought that somebody would argue we have a constitutional right to be naked in public under the 1st amendment? But the ACLU did.

Here's my problem with what happened; a possible ambiguity in the bill was identified and brought up, and instead of changing the wording of the bill to either define sexual orientation or to exclude pedophilia, they left the ambiguous language and just got huffy that anybody would dare find a problem with their wording. So the ambiguous language is still there. A fairly systematic problem with the legislation coming out of congress. When any possibly ambiguity is identified it should be addressed in the wording and the ambiguity eliminated. Our laws should be left open to broad or erroneous interpretations resulting in outcomes the legislation did not intend.

I don't agree with hate crime legislation anyway. I believe that the crimes are already covered under standing legislation. I have a philosophical disagreement with making crimes against certain groups more important than crimes against others. It flies in the face of our "all men are created equal" belief system. Also, I believe it encourages the culture of victimology that we have been descending into for the last 2 decades. But primarily, it encourages us to look first at what makes us different from each other instead of what makes us the same. We are all Americans and in so very many ways we are alike. Over the last few years we have become more and more divided into demographic groups and too many see themselves that way first and as an American second.

We are Americans and we should stand together and see each other as Americans first. Why is it that we can come together with so much tolerance, acceptance and patriotism in a crisis and bicker like ill behaved siblings at other times? And how can we stand united, as one people, one nation, when we pass legislation that separates certain groups from others?

I am an American and I am proud to share my country with other Americans of all races, religions, ethic backgrounds and sexual orientations - excluding pedophiles.