HATEFUL ACTS ARE THE BY-PRODUCTS OF HATE SPEECH

By Helen L. Burleson, Doctor of Public Administration

Recently at the Holocaust Museum, we saw the ultimate fulfillment of a person filled with hatred. This hatred led to the merciless slaughter of a public servant, a security guard on duty at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Hatred and the availability and the accessibility of guns are responsible for this horrific crime. First of all, this man, James Von Brunn, was arrested and served time for gun violence in the past. How did he acquire a gun? Why was he not being monitored as a potential domestic terrorist based on his past history?

There was so much hate speech during the most recent presidential campaign that it is reaching the boiling point. Some of the candidates themselves engaged in both veiled, covert and overt hate speech. A case in point was one candidate generating so much hatred until the crowded audience was yelling, traitor, terrorist and kill him. Yet this candidate allowed this to prevail without even attempting to quell and dissuade the audience from working themselves into a frenzy. Now a member of this candidate’s family is a target of ridicule and demeaning remarks. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, foul is being cried.

One “wanna-be” celebrity talk show host decried the fact that President Obama did not use the word Democracy during his speech in Egypt. She was proven wrong when MSNBC replayed his speech where at least three times he referenced Democracy. This same wanna-be kept repeating on a recent broadcast, “ You chose your pastor,” when Rev. Wright resurfaced, after a welcomed absence from the national scene, using some ill-spoken assertions.

When the lunatic fringe keeps acclaiming that the President is not a U. S. citizen and demanding to see his birth certificate, that is a form of hate speech. How many birth certificates of other presidents have been on public display? How many of the nut fringe have gone around showing either their birth certificates or marriage licenses? We assume and accept that people are married if they say so. We assume and accept that one standing for the highest office in the land has been sufficiently vetted to know whether that person is a citizen or not. When you have crazies going around saying, “ He’s not my President,” that is hate speech. When you question someone’s religious beliefs, that is hate speech.

Hate speech comes from incompetent, dissatisfied, unfulfilled people who are angry with the world for their own shortcomings and failings. One thing is very true about America, though it is not perfect, nor a perfect Democracy, those who work hard and play by the rules can not only survive, but in many instances they can thrive. People who have made the most of their lives, who have done the best they can and are satisfied with what they have without coveting what someone else has, rarely, if ever engage in hate speech.

There are no rewards of any significance or substance that result from hate speech. The only thing that this outward hatred does is to become an internal cancerous, festering sore which by magnifying and multiplying itself only makes the hater more miserable. The danger lies in the fact that when the well runneth over, he or she, then lashes out and then there are manifestations that result in harm to others. The harm they do to others also does undetected harm to themselves. Unfortunately, their relief comes from the terror they inflict on others. If incarcerated, they suffer the consequences of their hatred, so then, what of value has come to them as a result of their taking another person’s life or destroying someone’s property?

Such people are irrational and are as much a danger to themselves as they are to others.

There are those who “claim” to be pro-life, yet they are willing to take the life of another to prove their point. A life is a life, whether it is an unborn child or a physician who saves many lives. Thus, we recently had the senseless act of killing, Dr. Tiller, a physician who performed late term abortions. There is no trade off. I have yet to see one of these zealots, say to an expectant mother, go ahead, have your baby, I will help to provide for that child. Making themselves the judge and playing the role of God, they take it upon themselves to make decisions for other people. We never know what the circumstances are that lead a woman not to deliver a child. This mother, whether young or old may have physical, mental health or financial problems that render her incapable of caring for a child. There have been too many instances where after giving birth, babies are dumped in garbage cans or their mothers kill them and blame the act on someone else. Would these children have been better off, not to enter into the world and life of an unprepared or unfit mother? How many of these people who are so determined to interfere with a mother’s right to choose are setting up college funds for these children? How many of these raging warriors are good parents themselves? What kind of example are they setting for their own children when they take the life of another?

Hate is hate whether it is racially motivated, economically motivated, religiously motivated, biological-interference motivated or whatever the obsession is. It is still sick, destructive behavior.

These haters need to take a good long look in the mirror and ask themselves why they are so poisoned with hatred. They will find more peace by minding their own business and by taking advantage of all the opportunities that are available to them in America. Perhaps the answer will result in a complete change of behavior and they will find solace in accepting themselves and their lives as the better one for them. If they are not satisfied, in America, they can do better. Even in tough economic times, there is hope and help for people in America who seek it.

I am certainly not minimizing the devastation that many of us are feeling in these tough economic times, but never has the saying been so meaningful, that where there is a will, there is a way. Once one has unburdened himself or herself of hatred, the mind is now clear to seek satisfactory resolutions to the troubles one has. Ridding oneself of the burden of hate opens a whole new way of life that is productive and rewarding. Those who hate need to try love and peace; it will serve one so much better than hate and hate speech. Let the light that is within each of us, shine. Let our Creator be proud of the product He has given life to. In many religions, there is the admonition to love thy neighbor as thy self. Let’s build a loving encompassing atmosphere instead of confining ourselves to a cocoon of hatred!

The 2009 Point in Time report can be found at the MDHI website. The links to each section are below, and can be found at mdhi.org under the “Downloads” tab.

Go to www.MDHI.org and you can click on these links.
The news is sobering.

Full report: http://mdhi.org/download/files/2009%20Point%20in%20Time%20Report%209-23-09.pdf

County tables: http://mdhi.org/download/files/County%20Tables--All%20Counties--9-22-09.pdf

Addendum A-Domestic Violence Summary: http://mdhi.org/download/files/Addendum%20A-Domestic%20Violence%20Summary%209-23-09.pdf

Addendum B-Survey Forms: http://mdhi.org/download/files/Addendum%20B-Survey%20Forms%209-23-09.pdf

Addendum C-Privacy Notice: http://mdhi.org/download/files/Addendum%20C-Privacy%20Notice%209-23-09.pdf

Across the region and the state people are dying because they have no where to turn. A memorial for those who are homeless without a place to stay permanently, whose families are subjected to fluctuations and lack of safety in living, and for those thousands and thousands of people who have suffered and have forfeited a third of their lives on the street, or who began in an unsafe and essentially unwanted place we are dedicating a public work of art. Please contribute to those who did not have a safe and full life.

Since this survey January 27, 2009 our numbers have increased from 11,000 to fifteen thousand across the region. Our newly homeless has risen thirty present as has the numbers of youth under eighteen years of age.

The Peace memorial for the homeless who have died in our neighborhoods.

One of the things I've learned about tourism is that jobs in this field are not always "9 to 5" desk jobs. While some of the jobs require lots of behind the scenes planning, many of the jobs require face-to-face customer contact, like tour guiding, for example. Being paid to meet new people and take them around Colorado (or around the world) is an amazing opportunity.

I was reminded of this when I took Visit Denver's "Go the Extra Mile" certification course this week. During the course I visited the Denver Zoo, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Denver Art Museum. It was great to experience Denver the way a tourist does. A Private Guide offers many tours similar to these, as well custom tours designed by your own private Tour Specialist.

Working with A Private Guide has really enabled me to expand my knowledge of Denver. Here's a sneak peak: did you know that Denver is home to 2,000 restaurants? That’s a ton of food and a ton of options! One of my favorites is Kona Grill in Cherry Creek which is well known for its wonderful sushi and Japanese food. A Private Guide offers several shopping and dining tours in the Denver area where you can check out restaurants like this one. Cherry Creek is also a favorite destination for school groups at Christmastime. A Private Guide arranges special trips to visit Santa and to Build-A-Bear Workshop where kids can create their very own stuffed animal holiday present. A Private Guide can even arrange for hearing-impaired children to have their special moment with Santa.

With the Great American Beer Festival in town and the Denver Beer Fest, there isn’t a better time to be well updated on your beer knowledge. A Private Guide also offers great brewery tours, like of our world famous Coors Beer and Miller Coors Brewery in Golden. See how your favorite beer is brewed, try free samples and even discover a new favorite!

A Private Guide is always here to accommodate anyone and everyone who wants to experience Denver's booming hospitality industry. Denver is full of opportunities-- come share it with us!

Kelli Wilson, Intern
A Private Guide, Inc.

Today, I am learning how to post a blog on a custom B2evolution site. Who knew this would be part of my travel business training? I must have posted successfully if you are reading this now. You'll see more posts, uploaded by me in the future.

My Private Life With A Private Guide
By Kelli Wilson
(9/17/09)

When did a sick day become no fun? Alright, well, I guess being sick is never fun but “back in the day” sick days had so much for us to look forward to! Staying home, eating soup, getting waited on, watching daytime television and not worrying about what responsibilities you’re supposed to have. You realize how much you care about your job or your internship when you have to take a sick day (or five). Instead of feeling excited that you are able to stay home, you feel even sicker about what you are missing and how far behind the temper tantrum your immune system is throwing will get you.

You can probably guess what happened to me this week. Monday morning I woke up with that burning feeling in my throat and that stinging feeling in my head. That feeling where your mind is telling you it’s Monday and time to get up but your body is telling you to get back in bed. After talking to Daphne we decided I should take the week off to get better. Although I did not feel any better as the days went on, I decided to still go to school since teachers aren’t always as understanding as bosses. However, when I entered my second class, the professor took one look at me and, fearful of the breakout of swine-flu on the CU/Boulder campus, told me to go home.

What do you get done when you’re banished to your bedroom? Well, one thing that was nice, besides the extra hour of sleep, was that it gave me a chance to further my research on the upcoming and oh-so-exciting Biennial! When I first began working with Daphne I had no idea what the Biennial was. Now I hear about it everywhere we go, and we even met with the ovational Gareth Heyman from MorEvents to talk more about it (Thank goodness I had updated my knowledge of the event-- I was able to provide Daphne with information she couldn't remember when her brain went on vacation during the middle of the meeting!). Can you believe that our great city of Denver has been chosen for the 2010 Biennial of the Americas? For seven weeks our city will be hosting this fine event for people coming from all around the Western Hemisphere. Tourism in Denver might never be the same when all these new faces see what our city is made of! (If you can’t tell I am extremely proud to live in Denver!!)

Also, I was still able to attend a planning meeting with the President of A Private Guide Inc., Sid Wilson, on Wednesday. Although my head ached and my right eye had a strange gooey substance living in it for the better part of the morning, it was a very insightful experience for me to be able to sit in on a meeting with Sid. It made me feel like a part of the company and I was excited to be included in something like that.

It is weeks like this when I realize how lucky I am to be working with a company and group of people who actually know my name and don’t just know me as “the girl to give your coffee order to”. If they had not been so understanding I fear I would have been sitting in the office all week partially working but mostly moping in the corner. I did not get as much done this week as I would have liked to, and that sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach is there to remind me, “Even though you’re sick Kelli, you missed out on a lot.” Thank you swine flu or headaches or common cold or whatever you are. I have now had two trips to the doctor and am looking forward to getting my life back together and on track next week!

Kelli Wilson, Intern
A Private Guide, Inc.

In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that said," as of January 1, all slaves in rebel; states would be free."

The largest single troubling issue with this decision is the question of, free to do what and where? What transpired as a result of this economic decision was to make the lives of people already over burdened with extremism and violence to be further barred from having an equal place in the community as citizens. The human rights and democratic conversation about how another person is treated and what responsibilities the rest of the world has toward these once captive people is a more engaging and difficult issue.
We have never taken responsibility to ensure that people are cared for and offered every opportunity to live together in this country.

The Emancipation Proclamation was long overdue. but the vestiges of the conditions that created a caste system of subjugation and captivity of other human beings has never been ameliorated. We have not done due diligence to ensure that the human rights struggle came to terms with what it means to be equal. Conditions for the newly freed people were even more difficult as a result of the economic opportunity that influenced President Lincoln's decision.

I always consider in this moment the immortal words of Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr, "Thank God I am free, free at last." Let us struggle and create the best of what this nation conceived in its infancy in the guiding principles of the Declaration of Independence.

F.D.I.C. May Borrow Funds From Banks and what do you think that this will mean for you? It means that what happened the first time that we lost everything in the 1930's is about to reoccur. The economy is steadily capsizing unlike what is being stated in the media and by officials. We stand on the brink of looking into an abyss that may end the form of capitalism that we have come to expect. Property values will plummet and the ability of the world economy to restore any financial stability will devolve.

There is an answer to this frightening scenario and it is simple. Many ages ago people did not rely on business, which has not been a panacea for anyone who lives marginally. What we have to remember is how to share; how to barter; how to do with less and above all else accept the way we live with dignity and concern for our neighbors.
Mayor Hickenlooper talks about opportunity. The real opportunity is taking care of one another and not to panic and be filled with anxiety. Times are tough but we are resilient.

By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: September 21, 2009 From the New York Times Tuesday morning
WASHINGTON — "Tired of the government bailing out banks? Get ready for this: officials may soon ask banks to bail out the government.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News
Sheila C. Bair, head of the F.D.I.C., would prefer not to tap a line of credit from the Treasury.
Related
Times Topics: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Senior regulators say they are seriously considering a plan to have the nation’s healthy banks lend billions of dollars to rescue the insurance fund that protects bank depositors. That would enable the fund, which is rapidly running out of money because of a wave of bank failures, to continue to rescue the sickest banks.

The plan, strongly supported by bankers and their lobbyists, would be a major reversal of fortune.

A hallmark of the financial crisis has been the decision by successive administrations over the last year to lend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to large and small banks.

“It’s a nice irony,” said Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, a consulting company. “Like so much of this crisis, this is an issue that involves the least worst options.”

Bankers and their lobbyists like the idea because it is more attractive than the alternatives: yet another across-the-board emergency assessment on them, or tapping an existing $100 billion credit line to the Treasury.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which oversees the fund, is said to be reluctant to use its authority to borrow from the Treasury.

Under the law, the F.D.I.C. would not need permission from the Treasury to tap into a credit line of up to $100 billion. But such a step is said to be unpalatable to Sheila C. Bair, the agency chairwoman whose relations with the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, have been strained.

“Sheila Bair would take bamboo shoots under her nails before going to Tim Geithner and the Treasury for help,” said Camden R. Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers. “She’d do just about anything before going there.”

Bankers worry that a special assessment of $5 billion to $10 billion over the next six months would crimp their profits and could push a handful of banks into deeper financial trouble or even receivership. And any new borrowing from the Treasury would be construed as a taxpayer bailout that could open the industry to a political reaction, resulting in a wave of restrictions like fresh limits on executive pay.

Any populist furor could be avoided, the thinking goes, if the government borrows instead from the banks.

“Borrowing from healthy banks, instead of the Treasury, has the advantage of keeping this in the family,” said Karen M. Thomas, executive vice president of government relations at the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group representing about 5,000 banks. “It is much better for perceptions than having the fund borrow from somewhere else.”

Ultimately, officials say, the deposit insurance corporation could settle on a plan that replenishes the insurance fund by doing some of both: borrowing from healthy banks to shore up the shorter-term liquidity needs of the fund, and imposing a special fee on banks to increase the longer-term capital level of the fund.

Since January the F.D.I.C. has seized 94 failing banks, causing a rapid decline in the deposit insurance fund. Despite a special assessment imposed on banks a few months ago to keep the fund afloat, its cash balance now stands at about $10 billion, a third of its size at the start of the year. (Another $32 billion has been set aside for failures that officials expect to occur in the coming months.)

The fund, which stands behind $4.8 trillion in insured deposits, could be wiped out by the failure of a single large bank, although the deposit insurance corporation could always seek a taxpayer bailout by borrowing from the Treasury to stay afloat.

Officials say that the F.D.I.C. will issue a proposed plan next week to begin to restore the financial health of the ailing fund.

There is no consensus among the five board members, consisting of Ms. Bair, two other F.D.I.C. officials, and the heads of the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Others may propose novel ways to replenish the fund, for example, by asking the banks to prepay the premiums that they were planning to make next year.

Borrowing from the industry is allowed under an obscure provision of a 1991 law adopted during the savings and loan crisis. The lending banks would receive bonds from the government at an interest rate that would be set by the Treasury secretary and ultimately would be paid by the rest of the industry. The bonds would be listed as an asset on the books of the banks."

If you red these statements closely you will be aware that this time there are no world wars to get us out of the mire of the financial collapse. We must rely on our own gifts and resources to sustain our lives and way of life. We are resilient and able to care for the world as stewards and citizens much more effectively than anyone.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless has set the standard of community relations in attempting to stem the tide of the loss of housing, services, the unabashed effort to throw people out in the street from the reduction of AND (Aid to the Needy and Disabled), the cuts in people receiving assistance from the clinics, the loss of the specialized programs of health care and prevention, the cuts in mental health services and the inability for the public entities to protect the families and offer them a place that is permanent to dwell. The list of cuts is staggering. The numbers of homeless people keeps growing and has surpassed all of the numbers that have existed to date anywhere and as a result of this Great Recession, vulnerable people are dying at record rates.

There is no appropriate time for people to be without a place to live which is permanent and stable. There is no season which is better than any other. Many people die when the weather changes from the heat to cold because of the fluctuating temperatures and adversity of the conditions. People cannot adapt and they lose consciousness and die..

We need a memorial to those who have died that stands on public land for all of those throughout the state who have been homeless. It must be created in 2010 to commemorate the census for 2010 in a ceremony that indicates the wide differences in geographic location and quality of life of the most vulnerable of this state’s citizens.

We call upon all of the people of Colorado to push forward steadily for a public place to honor the forgotten citizens of our community. In 2010 there will be a drive to raise money and commission an artist to design the site. We need private resources to erect this monument on public land. The City and County of Denver may elect to create such a place and the State of Colorado can also choose to erect a small site on the grounds of the Capitol. Whatever we choose to do, this is the time to focus on the rates of those who are dying who have been homeless. There is no more affirmative action than to recognize those who fear that they may die alone, without anyone knowing that they lived.