QUOTE(Robert Giacometti @ Oct 9 2006, 01:54 PM)
Its sad you can't see you are jumping to conclusions without all the facts. Your comment about it being based on skin color was very premature and quite frankly inappropriate.
There is no value in trying to incite this issue into a race issue until the facts are known. You mentioned possibilities but there are many different possibilities and we may never know who or why. You cite all these other issues and somehow using these other issues as justification for what you wrote....this is wrong.
We all need to be extremely sensitive of bringing race into issues. If we are ever to be truly be a color blind society then we all must refrain from bringing skin color into issues, prematurely!
Yes, there are many possibilities of who or why this happened, but you chose to focus on only one. Race is an extremely volatile issue and by bringing it prematurely it only makes it more volatile. IMHO all you have accomplished is to expose your prejudices.
I have confidence in my neighbors and friends that once the facts are known the community will support doing the right thing. If I didn't have that confidence in my community I wouldn't want to live there and wouldn't!
I didn't jump to conclusiions, but merely reacted to what the police said; it is a possible hate crime. They have reason to believe it was so, and with the rash of attacks against minorities who happen to look middle-eastern, as this victim does, and the suspect is a white male, as most of the suspects in the attacks on middle-eastern looking minorities have been, and firebombing has been used as weapons of terror against people (minorities included if not in particular), it is not much of a stretch to think we might be dealing with a hate crime here.
Yes, we do need to be careful about bringing race into this issue. People get victimized because of their race all the time.
My use of the other examples is to point out how something like this may not be such a stretch in Folsom. It may be an extreme case, but racism, like charity, starts at home.
As for the 'color blind' society, I am not so sure we want or need one. I think it's okay that we are of different races, and that we can recognize and celebrate those differences.
I can cop to the fact that we perhaps should wait on the results, because we may find otherwise. In much the same way as that Karr pervert was convicted in the media and by the public for Jon Benet's murder, and it turns out he's a sick freak, but did not kill Jon Benet.
I'll admit to being sensitive to any hint of racism, as I could go on for a lifetime telling you about my own experiences. I think minorities, due to their experiences, are much more likely to believe such crimes are race-related than white folks are.
So, I'm willing to let the cops do their thing.
QUOTE(bordercolliefan @ Oct 9 2006, 02:14 PM)
Even if this is a hate crime, I would be wary of painting all (or even most) Folsomites with the same brush as the perpetrator. I bet he will turn out to be someone with a past criminal record, possibly a nutcase, uneducated... a real loser--- hardly someone who is representative of mainstream Folsom. As you are fond of pointing out, there are a few nutcases and extremists everywhere you go: it doesn't mean the whole society is that way.
I did not attempt to paint all of Folsom with the same brush. If I felt you were all racists, I wouldn't live here.
As for the the perptrator's background, I'd be you are right. Where we differ is that there are probably more people like him in town than you realize. This town wasn't always Intel employees.
) Just maybe, there is something going on here other than race. Can't you acknowlege that??
