Tears and anger

It is hard for me to get a handle on my emotions about this incident. I am fucking furious and deeply saddened by the incident tonight in Tel Aviv. A group for gay teens was meeting at a local gay community center when a man with a machine gun broke in and sprayed the room with bullets.br /object height="364" width="445"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GdULNoL6YZMamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0x234900amp;color2=0x4e9e00amp;border=1"param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GdULNoL6YZMamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;rel=0amp;color1=0x234900amp;color2=0x4e9e00amp;border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="364" width="445"/embed/objectbr /These were kids who are came together for counseling and emotional support. They were there with the counselor who runs the group. And some fucking bastard walks in and wants to murder them.br /br /Let's take a guess, a wild stab in the dark. Anyone think it might have to do with hatred for people who are gay? Anyone want to guess the odds that the murdering SOB was religiously inspired?br /br /Be clear, as some media reports are wrong, this was not a bar or club that was open to the public. This was a counseling group especially for gay teens. The killer had to have picked this group in particular, research was necessary to carry out this crime. The killer knew who he was targeting, this was not a random act of violence but one that was particularly pointed at gay young people.br /br /Ten young people were hospitalized, and two are dead. And for their parents this is a double-shock. Many of the parents were unaware that their children were dealing the difficulty of being gay.br /br /Let me state that while the murderer himself bears the ultimate responsibility that all purveyors of hate and bigotry play their role. Those groups that preach hatred, teach hatred, and they know that ultimately people act on their beliefs. I am not saying that their free speech should be curtailed. But I am also saying that decent people ought to point fingers at these hate-mongers and let them know that they help encourage these very things. Maggie Gallagher a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" href="http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2009/03/rampaging-gays-impregnate-millions.html"helps/a encourage this sort of thing. Jennifer Roback Morse a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" href="http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2008/10/when-religion-takes-over.html"helps/a encourage these sorts of things. Michael Reagan a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" href="http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2009/05/atlas-shrugged-and-adopted-michael.html"helps/a encourage these sorts of things. The Mormon sect a style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" href="http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-prop-8-fallout.html"helps/a encourage these sorts of things.br /br /Conservatives love to preach: "Ideas have consequences." And they are right. Ideas do have consequences. When thousands of fundamentalist preachers around the world get up in their pulpits and preach that God hates gays and demands "that their blood shall be upon their head" then someone is going to put "God's word" into action. When millions of conservatives campaign for laws that explicitly say that gay people do not deserve the same rights before the law as other people, the first step toward dehumanization has taken place.br /br /What religiously-motivated hatred is pervasive we know, with complete certainty, that people will act on that hatred. When you tell these people that their hatred is godly, and divine in origin, you justify, in their minds, the actions that they will take.br /br /This is precisely why I constantly speak out against bigotry, in all forms. Bigotry is not just an attack on one group. It is an attack on the very principles of a liberal, free society. It is an attack on decency and true morality. Haters are destroyers. And sometimes, like tonight, it is the young, our children, who become their targets.br /br /For that, we should all weap.br /br /They were just kids. They were just kids wanting to understand who they were. For that they should be murdered? What a fucking messed up mind is responsible for this.br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO845NVsvTWLZx7uvwrPXiz312vjVXeMbjvRXx-DfUjWrGHrcFTX5HHuI5dtQU1vqKw3ULhQWw4mzybyxGXcFesTBFr98wGPA1CvN3slqfI4AfVy480lBCXdl-VzofZSFNSir83sk9e6Li/s1600-h/Picture+7.png"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO845NVsvTWLZx7uvwrPXiz312vjVXeMbjvRXx-DfUjWrGHrcFTX5HHuI5dtQU1vqKw3ULhQWw4mzybyxGXcFesTBFr98wGPA1CvN3slqfI4AfVy480lBCXdl-VzofZSFNSir83sk9e6Li/s400/Picture+7.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365283225039775698" border="0" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/23782041-5272668746525406458?l=freestudents.blogspot.com'//div

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