by Wayne Leon Learmond

Created on: March 10, 2010   Last Updated: March 11, 2010

'To help protect our citizens from violence on what they look like, who they love or how they pray'. {President Obama, 2010}

There is a massive difference between free speech and those that say the Hate Crimes Bill somehow violates their right to 'slur' people. Because let us be in no doubt that that is what this is all about, the right to slur and to slander people, whether it be because of their race, colour or creed. America has always been in a conundrum here when it comes to free speech.

On the one hand the country was built on free speech, people being able to say anything they wished to say without any comeback at all. But, as the years went on, America proved to the world that democracy within that land was only for some and not for all.

Where was democracy and free speech for the American Red Indians forced from their lands into what amounted to little more than concentration camps? Where was the democracy for African Americans who where ripped from their homeland  to be sold as slaves, and also to work upon the plantations and cotton fields, an industry - along with the vile trade in human cargo {the Slave Trade} that made America rich?

Where was the democracy and free speech for those that happened to be gay? And where is the democracy and free speech that ALL peoples should have, and not just a chosen few?  The only Rights that this Bill violates are the Rights of those that did not want the Bill to go through in the first place. And why would they not want that?

The answer to that is simple enough, they wanted to be able to continue to threaten, beat up, murder and maim innocent men, women and children based on their race, colour, religion or creed. They wanted free reign to be able to say and do anything they so wished to anyone who looked even remotely 'different'.

This Bill is a step in the right direction in terms of Human Rights in America. It has to be noted that this Bill does not, and will not prosecute people who spout racist, homophobic and religious hatred - and inflammatory rhetoric.  This Bill only comes into play when violent acts are based on bias.

This is a pity, because racist and homophobic speeches nearly always lead to attacks on minorities. One has to remember that the gift of free speech comes at a cost, and the cost is the millions of lives that have been lost because of hateful speeches that groups such as the Klan and other American hate groups - such as the Neo-Nazis have spouted over the years.

 It

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