A New Level of Hate

In Illinois, an elementary school bus driver taunted a ten year-old boy, calling him "gay." He then, at the child's bus stop, encouraged other students to go beat him up.
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As we all dissect the last debate and worry about the economy, the level of hate in this country just reached a new high.

Or should I say low.

In Illinois, an elementary school bus driver taunted a ten year-old boy, calling him "gay." He then, at the child's bus stop, encouraged other students to go beat him up.

The school has confirmed this, and is looking to also confirm that the driver himself got off the bus to join them.

That a 46 year-old man taunted a ten year old boy for any reason is horrible enough. But that he was in charge of children's safety and encouraged kids to beat the boy up?

There should be a special kind of jail for people like that. Since that's pretty much out of the question, how about a federal hate crimes bill?

As the economy continues to swirl it's way down the toilet, the levels of hate crimes -- all hate crimes -- will rise exponentially. They always do in times of economic distress.

This was a ten year-old child. Too young to be gay, straight or anything but a boy. What if he were Black and the driver had called him a "nigger" and told the kids to beat him up? Or Asian? Or Hispanic?

Where is the outcry? This happened last week and there has been no mainstream media news about it at all -- why? Because if it were about race? It would have made the news. If the child was handicapped? There would be cameras in this guys face asking hard questions.

There would be a lesson to learn. It would be clear that in our society that kind of behavior is not okay.

Instead we have reached a new level of hate.

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