Myriam Marquez, The Miami Herald

March 3, 2009

Myriam Marquez
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693

RE: Wasn’t hate a target of the Stimulus Plan? Everything else was. Your column of March 1, 2009 and the question of do umbrellas cause rain is asked yet again.

Ms. Marquez,

You ask

“Was this a hate crime based on the presumption that
the Chileans, who were in Florida for a six-month
work-study program, were illegal immigrants”

In 1864 the New York Times and the Democratic Party acquiesced in the notion that Abraham Lincoln was a “baboon”.

In this era of “hope and change” can we retroactively add their names to the list of conspirators in Lincoln’s assassination? Using your Logic we can.

Would the visiting Chileans be any deader if they had been killed by cousins or jilted suitors or lightning or a drunk driver?

You say

“The courts will deal with Baker’s [the alleged assailant] guilt
or innocence, his motivation, and whether he is mentally ill.
His actions serve as a warning about brewing hatred in
pockets of our country. Hatred that’s fanned by the
Internet and anti-immigrant rhetoric spewed on talk
radio and some cable TV shows – twisted into
vendettas against the Innocent.”

A small thing, “no bigger than a man’s hand against the horizon”, but if he is found not guilty be reason of insanity how can you construct a universal – the Internet and talk radio lead to violence from this particular – the death of visiting Chileans? The elements of a crime, indeed the elements of a mortal sin, would not be present.

Speaking of constructing universals from particulars, do you think Rush Limbaugh was responsible for the deaths in Miramar Beach?

There is no such thing as “Left-Wing” talk radio. This being Florida it is said that red necked, blue collared, red pickup truck drivers, having stumbled on to a wing nut “moon bat” humming Kumbaya by accident, have shot their radios.

That leaves “Right-Wing” talk radio. The 800 pound gorilla – I can still use primate references if the target is Caucasian, can’t I? – is Rush Limbaugh.

Did Rush Limbaugh cause the murders of the two tourists?

What if the perpetrator [alleged] had listened to hip-hop gangsta rap before he went out and shot them? Would you accuse the Rasta haired, gold tooth enemies of melody of “brewing hatred in pockets of our country”. Would you have a solution in mind for that?

2500 hundred years ago a Dead White European Male, a combat veteran, said

“Free men speak with free tongues”

Do you think the above is “hate speech”?


PS – How about those Mohammed cartoons?