9/11 is one of those dates when everyone still remembers exactly where they were. We heard rumours of something big happening while waiting to collect the girls in the playground. We returned home just in time to see the second tower collapse. This was the first defining event of the new century, in whose shadow we still live.
9/11 is, I suppose, the very definition of a hate crime, of people driven on by religious fanaticism to carry out the most brutal of deeds.
Fifteen years on, I believe we need to remember what a hate crime really is. It is an evil committed by fanatics or those whom the fanatics have brainwashed to become their agents.
A hate crime is not expressing an opinion simply with which you or I might disagree. Sounds obvious? Yet today there is a bitter war of words on Facebook and various blogs. It seems that someone has been reporting those who uphold the traditional view of marriage to the police. I do not know the facts of the case directly.
But let’s remember what a hate crime really is. And let’s not use legislation to muzzle those with whom we disagree. That is the lesson we need to learn from 9/11.
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