by Aleggs Sander

Created on: December 28, 2009   Last Updated: December 30, 2009

Do Hate Crime Laws prevent Hatred in America?

The purpose of law is to prevent injustices from being perpetrated upon the weak and powerless, to establish bonds by which the poor are protected from the graft of the greedy, and the rich are protected from the anger and desperation of the poor.

Law does not establish the good, rather it seeks to eliminate the bad, and protect human beings from each other (which is why the seat belt law should be challenged). Because laws are established to prevent us from practicing certain actions against each other, the law fails to go to the root of problems, the heart (mind, character).

Laws may limit human behavior, but they cannot change the root of that behavior, and it is in that we find the weakness of laws, and continued racism. Laws cannot prevent hatred, but they can limit its accomplishing an act of violence.

Hatred, anger, and apathy are all emotions that find their origin in the human psyche. They are born of ways of thinking, or even of certain actions perpetrated against someone, but ultimately are based on choice. One does not need to learn them to exercise them, but one will find that these negative emotions are easily aroused.

Love, on the other hand has to be learned. One does not need to learn how to hate; that will come on its own, but love requires modeling, teaching, and display in order to be fully integrated into the psyche.

Since laws are made to protect and prevent injustice, it is hard to make a law that will change one’s heart, where one has the power to choose what one will indulge in. There is an old adage which goes something like this: “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

Laws may batter down the human behavior, but unless it can touch the will, even more than the intellect, if it cannot touch the emotion, in the heart the individual is merely a legalist.

Corporations and companies seek to protect themselves from lawsuits by filling quotas, but no quotas would be necessary if the human heart were touched by that which is right, and just and proper and good. It is not enough to be legal, people must become good, and the laws of the land cannot make anyone good.

It has been many years since the Civil Rights victories of the 1950’s and 60’s. There are racial and ethnic problems, nevertheless, and unfortunately the bulk of these problems stem from the unwillingness of individuals to change the way they view people.

There are organizations,

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