Social conservatism scares me because to me it indicates an unwillingness to accept change.

Fear is a powerful tool, don“t you think?

Almost as powerful as hatred, and when mixed together, the two become just as volatile as a Molotov cocktail. America has become very well acquainted with both over the past five years; the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center, we as a country made a silent agreement to be ruled by them until we were given justification to feel otherwise.

However, fear is nothing new to this country and neither is hatred. Over the past decade or so they have been shoved down our throats. Personally, I blame bipartisanship, and even more specifically I blame people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

Social conservatism scares me because to me it indicates an unwillingness to accept change, and life is only life because of change. Without it we would be trapped in a state of limbo, never moving, learning or feeling anything new.

Over the past few years we have had to suffer with a bratty little rich girl (Coulter) with nothing better to do than spew her hate speech to people who are just as close-minded as she is. Limbaugh has made famous such terms as FemiNazis to describe women who are seeking to better the positions of people who share their chromosomal make-up in the United States, and everyones favorite fundamentalist Pat Robertson has publicly stated that gays and lesbians are somehow directly responsible for the rash of natural disasters that happened all across the world.

While I am an advocate of free speech, I believe that, as with anything else, there are limits to it. What makes all of this much worse to me is that these people have the nerve to call others sinners. They preach hellfire and damnation to a public that they say has lost the way.

However, as a former Catholic I am well acquainted with the teachings of Jesus Christ. I do not remember a single passage in which he condoned calling a man who was running for president a faggot, and I certainly dont remember any passages in which he advocated the use of scare tactics to make people think a certain way.

That has always been a big beef of mine when it comes to religion and Christianity in particular. However, when taken out of the religious forum, hate speech becomes much more potent because it does not target the people who actually buy into the religion “ it targets everyone.

And so, as we march throughout the Middle East waging our little war on terror (and let me remind you that it is impossible to wage war on a concept), we allow certain people to conduct a war of terror on their fellow citizens. Coulter has made an entire career out of being a close-minded, bigoted, trash-talking fool, as have the rest of her fanatic friends.

As much as I would like to put all the blame on them, Im afraid that were all to blame. This country is going to hell because we have become too tolerant of intolerance, creating a sort of reverse-prejudice vacuum, which in many ways is just as bad as prejudice itself. Children of gays and lesbians are denounced as fags in training in churches throughout the world, and the infection has spread to radio and TV as well. The only reason that this is allowed to continue is because it sells, and in America it all comes down to the almighty dollar. People love to keep up on the controversial actions of others; some even use it to feel superior to them (and yes, I am one of those people).

The point here is that if we allow ourselves to become so liberal with hate speech, we are not doing ourselves any good. By allowing them to continue to have a forum for this sort of speech we are proving to the rest of the world that in spite of our love to flaunt how much we have changed since the slavery and segregation days, nothing has changed at all.

If the religious right wishes to maintain integrity as a moral movement then they must act in accordance with their beliefs. A man who preached love would never have condoned hatred and fear against anyone, and if any Bible thumpers would care to take me on with that statement, it wont be very hard to get a hold of me.

And finally, if we want to change, then we must change, and not find different ways to continue as we always have. Racism, homophobia and misogyny cannot be tolerated in a free society, and as long as we continue we only make ourselves look like the horrible, evil people that the rest of the world may think we are.

The time has come for a change, and the change is up to you. Ignore the people who spew hate-like bile; they only have power because our society has given it to them.

Take it back before its too late.

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