The true meaning of equality

Equality. It’s a powerful word. The idea of everyone having equal rights is inspiring. The problem is the length to which people go in order to achieve equality. I believe Mother Russia had a fairly intense program to create equality for its citizens a couple years ago.

George Henson’s article on the interrelatedness of the African-American and the Gay Civil Rights movements is a perfect example of what is wrong with the fight for equality. Somewhere along the line of this “fight” for equality, the ill-conceived notion arose that inequality on part of the government will promote equality in its citizens, and Professor Henson bought it hook, line, and sinker.

He praises the fact that the killers of James Byrd were convicted for murder with special circumstance. That’s not equality. That’s not even a step forward. If you want to be honest, hate-crime laws are dealing a crippling blow to the equality movement of any minority that is unfortunate enough to have their names associated with them.

I will ask the obvious question, that clearly proponents of hate-crime laws are too ignorant to realize the answer to: How can equality ever be achieved if the United States government separates minorities from the general populace by giving them special protection laws? The answer: It can’t.

If a couple racists take a black guy and drag him around the street from the back of a truck until he dies, I absolutely believe the death penalty is more than necessary for them. If a couple homophobes tie a gay teenager to a fence and beat him to death, I think they should get the death penalty. But neither of those situations has anything to do with race or sexual orientation, it the simple matter that they killed somebody. If somebody violates social contract and purposefully kills or beats someone for any other reason than protection, they should be rewarded the full consequences of the law. But, if somebody gets a tougher punishment for beating a black man rather than a white man, that’s not equality, that’s prejudice.

Any group that wants these special rights is basically saying “I’m too weak to do it on my own.” Hate-crime laws are essentially the human equivalent of the endangered species program. Some species are too limited or weak to fend for themselves, so the government steps in and heightens the punishment for hurting one of its members. Because of this, the bald eagle is not equal to the cockroach. An eagle poacher goes to jail, a cockroach killer has a cleaner house.

I take some personal offense to these laws. What about me? I’m white. I’m straight. Who’s going to protect me? I don’t have any “special” laws, I guess me and my brothers have to stick up for ourselves.

Make no mistake about it, civil rights activists in no form or fashion want equal rights, they want special protection. It may be because they’re lazy and don’t actually want equality, just sympathy. Maybe they want equality but don’t feel they’ll get it, so they’ll settle for big brother’s protection. All I know is that it is hypocritical and ignorant to turn on your bullhorn to scream about equal rights while begging for government programs that are anything but.