Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
> At 9:46am -0500 12/6/00, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
> >Judging a community from the behavior of drunk young punks who that
> >community would just as soon put in jail (and likely has at least once
> >or twice already) is even less statistically relevant. I saw the same
> >behavior as you describe, in both directions, in the five years I lived
> >in Seattle, but I wouldn't say that Seattle was a hotbed of hate crimes.
>
> Why do you assume that the people I references were drunk or young or punks?
> The sad fact is that there is a lot of rural bigotry against other
> races, religons and sexual orientations. I simply don't see rural
> communities as having more tolerance for different cultures or
> behaviors than city communities. I meant no disrespect toward any
> specific culture, but I don't think any can claim the moral high
> ground either.
Sorry Harvey, I just don't accept claims of widespread rural bigotry at
the level you claim, except possibly in the rural South or other areas
of strong Klan influence (if they communities you speak of were such,
then I suppose that helps explain it). Working in Vermont as I do, with
the current Civil Union controversy raging, it has turned out that all
of the overt 'hate' crimes committed here since the 'Take Back Vermont'
grassroots campaign began were actually committed by gays trying to gain
sympathy. A gay priest, for example, torched his own car in a ploy to
enrage the community against conservative opposition, and it was a few
Darthmouth students who painted swastikas on a few street signs in
Norwich as a ploy to promote a 'diversity celebration' they had planned.
I know its rather stereotypical of me to say this, but these individuals
are only reinforcing prejudices about 'drama queens', and are doing
their cause no good.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:34 MDT