Hate groups across the land

As I was reviewing recent stories of white supremacist promoting “hate crime”, I take comfort in the fact that hate groups have remained a tiny, if lethal, slice of America proselytizing among the “mostly young male misfits attracted to their messages”.

This strange group of homo sapiens once spread their messages in fliers. Today, they have the internet to do it with wider dissemination. What’s worrisome is the availability of their “hate crime” messages readily accessible to millions of young children across the land.

There’s no way to stop such spread of information for it falls within the confines of our individual Bills of Rights of freedom of speech, press and expression. The issue is quite similar to gun control. It is an individual right to “…bear arms…” but must be weighed against the safety of the innocent in society. In like fashion, it should be understood too that freedom of speech, expression and of the press aren’t absolute. It’s about time that a national conversation is begun to explore what constitutional lawyers would argue as an “individual responsibility” versus the question of whether young kids can exercise discretion and responsibility when reading “hate crime” messages.

As I read Benjamin Smith’s fate of murdering minorities in drive-by-shootings and his subsequent suicide, my initial reaction is one of sorrow and condolences for such ruined mind and soul. Is it an issue of grand personal insecurity and immaturity in a land where the indigenous Native Americans are red rather than white?

At any rate, I’m not about to condemn Benjamin Smith for his belief for I know full well that “he knows NOT that he’s right, NOT!” Let’s remember them in our thoughts and prayers for they definitely need a lot of help.

Street naming mess

Historically, the Chamorros and Carolinians have had a share in the naming of villages in the islands between Guam and Urakas since time immemorial. The Japanese had their share, including the invading US Forces during and after the war.

But politicians have also entered the fray in street naming to please large family clusters in certain precincts for political purposes. It was never based on a certain criteria to determine the recipient’s contributions or historical ties with the place. It’s street naming strictly based on political expediency and correctness. It’s never based on merit or lifetime contribution or anything of substance other than political correctness. And so politicians pile up their own mess on piles of confusion as tall as the Puerto Rico Dump.

In the bid to secure an unearned name in history, street naming loses sight of its very purpose–establishment of specific 911 emergency calls–that would allow the local phone company to get on with specific identification of places in all the villages for emergency purposes. It’s an undertaking that would eventually emerge into a racist name calling rather than street naming between Chamorros and Carolinians. It depicts iindigenous narrow mindedness and sterling sense of immaturity in dealing with small issues.

To wit: We vacillate on substantive issues like the deepening economic crisis because we want to ensure that ethnic street naming predominates over everything else. Well, indigenous ability to miss the target completely never ceases to amaze me. And we can’t get our act together on such trivial matter, hey, name every street “Me, Myself and I” to appease our individual overblown ego, “Everybody” to neutralize any racial feud on whether it should be Carolinian or Chamorro; “Somebody” for all the wannabes; and “Nobody” for the humble squad whose major contributions were never remembered by political amnesiacs.