A crime should be a crime, but...

A crime really should be a crime, just like a sin should be a sin. Unfortunately, the space between "should be" and "is" is often more of a valley than a mere line. That being said, I think it's a good thing that the Congress is making crimes done because of a person's sexual orientation hate crimes.

Not that making violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people will make a huge difference. Congress can legislate laws but it cannot legislate a person's heart, and truth is, hatred and crimes done in the name of that hatred will always be around.

Making these types of crimes part of the hate-crimes law at least signals to the LGBT community that there is some sensitivity to the danger they are in, as well as the overall discrimination they face.

It is the strangest thing to me that so called believers take so long, in general, to admit that treating any of God's created people in a mean way is not of God. And yes, I believe God made all people, including black people and Hispanics ...and gays and lesbians.

The reason church-going people treat others badly and do not think about it is because too many people look at other people as objects and not subjects. In other words, people who are different than a person creating a hate crime are not looked upon as human beings with feelings. They are, rather, objects, like a hat or chair.

Objects do not feel or hurt.

This looking at another person as an object is not a new thing, nor is it reserved for and to people who commit hate crimes. Men often look at women as objects; children look at parents as objects, until they grow up and have children of their own.

The problem with people who treat other people as objects is that they have no capacity to feel for them or with them. If one could live in the shoes of a woman or black or Latino or gay person for even a day, I'll bet the incidence of hate crimes would go down.

After all, kids stop looking at their parents as objects when they can finally feel what parents go through, what they have to sacrifice in order to take care of their children in a good and right way.

But if a person does not ever have to feel another person's heart or spirit, never has to walk in his or her shoes and keep on walking in spite of bad treatment, that person never has the impetus needed to look at that person ...as a person.

The Congress is absolutely right to add crimes against people because of their sexual orientation as a hate crime, because that's what those crimes are. The Congress has an obligation to protect all of the citizens of the United States.

Would that it were that easy, though, to legislate or change a person's heart.

By Susan K. Smith  |  October 21, 2009; 11:48 AM ET
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