JMO - Hate speech

Listening to the speeches of John McCain and especially Sarah Palin, and reading some of the comments on both sides, it's clear to me, hate speech is still hate speech no matter how much the speaker says isn't it. You can't put a disguise on it. You can't wrap it around human or family values. And you can't cover it with a flag and call it patriotism. It's still hate speech.

It's about it all, the tune, the tone, the tenor, and the words, and more importantly, the intent. It's thought and written, and then spoken to create hate, to incite hatred, and to instill whatever -ism that fits, racism, sexism, and so on. It's said to make people hate, to hate your opponent. Nothing more and nothing worse. It's simply hate.

Hate from the minds and mouths of people who should know and do better, but knowingly won't because they're blind to their own ideals and ideas. But the reality is that they're not really blind or dumb about their words, they know it's hate and they know it's hate speech. They simply don't care because their hearts and values aren't about being good and kind, but hateful.

If you want people to believe in your credibility and integrity, hate speech only subtracts from it to the point you have neither, but simply seen for your hate speech. And then only the people who are equally or more hateful as you will agree, the rest of us will have long walked away and stop listening. Hate speech only goes so far and not very far at that.

And in today's political campaigns hate speech has become sophisticated and disguised as political rhetoric and defended by the speaker as, "just citing his or her record." Except you're not. You're turning around and misinterpreting it to be hate speech. You're creating hate where none existed and it's not their hate you're talking about but your own. Your words of hate for others. Your hatred of us.

And that's not what this country and nation is about. The freedom of speech guarrantees you the right to hate speech, but it doesn't guarrantee you the right to lie. When you use hate speech, it's not their or our hate you're talking about, but yourself and your hate. And next time you want to talk about hate, talk to a mirror.