God damn it. I am so sad! It is 2006 for crying out loud!

[KitchenWitch]

A church in St. Paul attended by predominantly African Americans had a cross burnt in front of it.

http://wcco.com/crime/local_story_018202433.html

How is it, in 2006, that we still have this shit going on?

:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

[MissHoneychurch]

1. one wonders why people do such hate crimes

and why they hate other people just because they have another skin color. For havens sake, underneath it we all have the same red blood and the same bones and organs. Nothing different.

:cry:

[Crazy Guggenheim]

2. Luckily they are very few and far between. Have you ever lurked

at Skinhead sites? :scared:

[KitchenWitch]

3. No

I do not have a strong enough constitution for that!

Hey George, the REAL terrorists are the cross burners/etc.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Ah, my dear KitchenWitch.......

Alas.....even though we have a new year, that doesn't mean that we have new hearts......

I'm sorry, sweetie......

:hug: :cry:

[KitchenWitch]

7. true

such evil...

[RevCheesehead]

5. Imagine how Jesus feels....

using his instrument of a horrible death to spread fear, rather than love. :(

The thing these assholes don't realize is that this kind of action often binds the community together, rather than spreading their hate.

Yup. Just like trolls and republicans.

:hug:

[KitchenWitch]

6. ...

:a deep and abiding sadness:

:hug:

[leftstreet]

15. "If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in His name,

He'd never stop throwing up."
— Frederick in Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

:-(

[Robeson]

8. Jesse Ventura was your Governor, and Norm Coleman is your Senator...

...it's getting hard for me to figure out Minnesota. As one who has visited your state for my beloved Vikings, and politically, always admired the liberalism of the state, again, I must say, it's getting hard for me to figure out the mind-set up there in these days....:shrug:

[KitchenWitch]

10. Jesse Ventura was a fluke

Both the dems and rethugs ran weakish candidates. I would guess, after speaking with a bunch of Ventura voters, that at least 70% of the Ventura votes were really a "none of the above" vote. Everyone was VERY shocked when he actually won.

Norm Coleman was "elected" on Wellstone's ashes. The Reichwing threw up a huge stink about how the news media outlets gave the Democrats "free time" for the Wellstone Memorial, and no time for the Rethugs. This galvanized the Rethug vote.

[Robeson]

11. Yes, I know the arguments, but it's amazing that there is such a....

...large "other" voice there, that seemingly has no handle on politics. It seems very volatile to me. If Dems were solid, Coleman - the lizard - wouldn't have stood a chance. If Dems were solid, Ventura would have never happened. I know the arguments, but it defies the logic of the arguments I've heard. All I can conclude, is that the state is a checkerboard of many beliefs, coupled with a lot of apathy.

[KitchenWitch]

13. Not sure about apathy, as much as misinformation

Minnesota is always in the top ten of percentage of registered voters showing up to the polls.

[Robeson]

20. It may be misinformation......

...maybe I'm just holding your state up to a higher standard, because, when growing up, Minnesota was always a bastion of Liberalism.

Hey, I'm from Tennessee. I'm inundated with rightwingers everyday of my walking life. But here, one knows that they are going to support one, or the other. If Liberals or Dems are the majority in Minnesota, how did a Norm Coleman happen? Irregardless of the Wellstone funeral, how did he happen if the Dems are the majority, and if there is party discipline?....:shrug:

[Left Is Write]

45. It's nothing short of a travesty that Norm Coleman is sittingwhere

Paul Wellstone should be.

[obxhead]

9. Hate....

It is living strong, just look at *'s poll number for confirmation.

[gordontron]

12. extrapolate on that please

[billyskank]

14. Damn

What a sour note to have to greet you on. :(

[KitchenWitch]

16. I am sorry billy!

:hi:

sometimes the evil in this world manages to get me down.

[billyskank]

17. That something has got you down

really sucks! X(

:hug:

[NMMNG]

18. When you have an Administration that promotes the spread of hatred,

bigotry and divison, what can be expected? :shrug:

I grow more ashamed of this nation every day.

[KitchenWitch]

19. Nothing like moving our society back 100 years.

:grr:

[NMMNG]

22. And then some

At the rate we're going we'll be back in the Dark Ages. Empirical Science is being tossed out in favor of "Intelligent Design" and "Bible Science", diversity and tolerance are being denounced in favor of religious based hysteria, Constitutional law is falling by the wayside and being replaced by rule of the King. If this keeps up, in 20 years the US will be unrecognizable from what it was just 10 years ago.

[KitchenWitch]

28. And hundreds of thousands of our citizens do not even have tents to live

in.

We have become a Third World Country.

[NMMNG]

30. They could be living in mobile homes, apartments,

or at least hotel rooms, if only we weren't spending billions and billions in Iraq. :grr:

[hfojvt]

24. Hey, hey, hey

when Clinton was President a bunch of black churches were burned down. It cannot all be blamed on Bush. Some of it has to be Rush Limbaugh's fault.

[NMMNG]

33. I'm all too happy to send some of the blame Oxyrush's way

:thumbsup:

Falwell, Robertson, Phelps and the rest of them can share it too.

[gordontron]

21. I really wonder at the mentality behind that...it is just so strange nt

[Oeditpus Rex]

23. When the asshats say 'Why do you hate America?'

I'd really like to say, "For the same reasons you love it," and then rattle off a list of despicable crimes such as this and others they promote.

[bridgit]

25. 2006, 2006...there was something i had to do this year = oh yeah!!

start voting these republicans shit-heads the hell out of office!!!! :patriot:

[KitchenWitch]

26. Get in line baby!

:patriot:

[Oeditpus Rex]

27. Yeah, but does it matter?

Remember, we're not only One Nation Under Surveillance, we're One Nation Under Diebold.

[bridgit]

29. so, we did get the government we deserved all along...

:shrug:

[Oeditpus Rex]

31. No, because we weren't sufficiently aware

We now know better our enemies. And knowledge is power.

I got "Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election" from Netflix today, and I'm gettin' educated — and seriously riled.

[bridgit]

34. ah but apathy is what got us here, i believe that with proper numbers...

even deibold will be seen as nothing more than a box that will validate the exit of republicans and not their permanence :patriot:

[Oeditpus Rex]

35. Apathy or ignorance?

I don't think it was apathy. Lord knows enough of us voted for Gore — more than voted for *, as we now know.

But that's the thing: as we now know — not just the elections, but the extent these people will go to. Their utter disdain for the law and the Constitution and for just plain old what's right.

I don't know what we can do about Diebold other than to simply tell our secretaries of state, over and over, that we will not accept these machines without ballot verification.

Otherwise, for the first time in my life, I can't believe voting matters. And in a so-called democracy, that's a pretty sickening feeling.

[bridgit]

36. i am almost glad that you are upset, people were pre-upset...

about florida last time around, all steely eyed as though it would happen in the same place in the same way...but then it came down in ohio.

my hope is that people will understand that voting; and more importantly, the results of the voting, precinct by precinct i.e. the electoral college, is where it all pivots.

that is the one component that clinton himself understood with a quickness. need some shoring up over there = fly on out and shake some hands. a little wobbly somewhere else = get on over there and kiss some babies. and i mean that in the very best of ways. understanding that by kissing the right baby at the right time you can swing a whole region. that's a good thing. kissing a baby is good politics. clinton & gore pulling their bus over and tossing a football back & forth even in the mud...genius! genius that worked just as it should have.

that's what freaked bush's old man straight the hell out. that this hill-billy kid with a 3-D mind able to turn objects in space/time understood more than all the king's horses and all the king's men ever could. which was why they had to stop democracy.

but there is no dispute, NO substitute for the security of numbers in so shape-shifting an endeavor such as democracy imo, still...

as for your "apathy or ignorance" teeter totter...that is exactly why they do so. but for a slight change here, a nuance there; they are interchangeable.

peace ~

[Oeditpus Rex]

37. Apathy leads directly to ignorance

Whereas ignorance may not lead to apathy.

I think part of our mission must be to turn ignorance to enlightenment. Every vote an informed vote.

Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'. :thumbsup:

[bridgit]

39. fair enough...

:patriot:

[enigmatic]

32. Oh boy

That's horrible. Unbelieveable in 2006.

[Shine]

38. I am sorry and sad to hear this news, too.

:cry:

what a crazy, fucked up world it is.

White light to all concerned...

we gotta keep holding the hoop for the LIGHT, in the midst of the darkness. Ho.

[Burma Jones]

40. My 7 year old woke up crying, saying he had a dream

he was being chased by the KKK and that they were going to burn a cross in our yard. We had some swaztiks and W.A.R. graffiti put on our local African American Church and the Negro School Historical Site last week.

As the Poor get Poorer, a lot of them are going to be looking for someone to blame. I think it's going to get worse and that South Asians and Chinese Immigrants are going to be targeted more and more.....

[GoddessOfGuinness]

41. Poor kid!

It doesn't help that the people in charge are preaching hate...

There've been more anti-semitic incidents around here lately, too. :-(

[KitchenWitch]

42. As the wife of an Amerasian man

This fact scares the shit out of me. Granted I am of both caucasian and American Indian descent, but I "look" caucasian. My husband does not look caucasian at all.

[Dangerously Amused]

43. Oh God.

That makes me both furious and sad.

:mad: :grr: :cry:



Do any of of those assholes EVER get caught?

[KitchenWitch]

44. Sounds like it was several white teenage boys

:grr:

so far no one has been caught!

:nuke:

[Mutley]

46. Fer f-ck sake!

Why do people have to act this way? :cry:

[supernova]

47. As a Southerner, I find this abhorrent

in the extreme. From the article:

Officer Pete Crum says a witness reported seeing three teenagers running from the Liberty Temple Church of God and Christ about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. The wooden cross was charred near the top and still burning at its base when police arrived.

Crum said the cross burning is being investigated as a hate crime.


Now the big question is, were these teens just out for a single night of stupidity or are they neo-nazis?

My condolences to the church memembers. St Paul really hasn't been on the list of most popular hate crime cities.

Is Garrison Keillor live tonight? If he is, I bet he will mention it.