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In this country we allow for freedom of speech. Freedom to express our ideas, concepts, and points of view no matter how putrid their meaning is. While I believe we all felt the same way about the noose in Jena, Louisiana, deeming it a hate crime, is to marginalize and reduce the impact a true hate crime has on it's victims.

By using this country's oft used brush of sensitivity and denial and spin to paint a picture that satiates the current uprise (especially when dealing with race), we do everyone an injustice. Our government slowly creeps further into our homes. It slowly let's us know how we are to live. It tells us what we can and can not say. It begins to erase the ink on our Constitution.

How can a noose hanging from a tree be considered a crime? It is a form of expression. No matter how vile or hate-filled that expression is, we can not push ourselves into voting on the legality of a concept or idea. Our racial sensitivity meters are working on overdrive right now. Even the slightest bit of perceived bigotry will be condemned. Ask the man who had a noose in his tree for Halloween but had to take it down? This is why the act of putting a noose in a tree can not be a hate crime. You have now included people who's only agenda with their noose was to have the spookiest house in the development because contrary to popular belief, hangings are not only reserved for African Americans. In the past, they work out pretty well for people like Nathan Hale, Roger Casement(Irish patriot), and the skeleton dummy Marty Menkman packed with straw on Sunday.

Public displays of nooses need to be taken within the context of their environment. During Halloween, to add a bit of ghoulishness to your front yard, or on the streets of the racial powder keg of Jena, Louisiana, their environment should be defining their meanings. Because of the actions of some racist ass whose ignorance and personal blight, we have put our blinders on and instead of debate, conversation, and information, and awareness, we label everyone racist and every deed a crime in the hope that it will somehow stop the action from ever happening again.

We can not sit idly back while something like this noose happens. In the same breath we need to understand it for what it is. We need to apply common sense and rationality and mutual understanding when defining our connotations to a specific display or expression. When we don't, we become blinded and unable to see all sides. Our common sense, rationality, and understanding become at risk of running parallel to those who caused our sensations anger and upheaval in the first place.

Learn more about this author, Jimmy Ettele.
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