Synonyms for Hate: Black, Holocaust, Racism, etc.

  Synonyms for hate: abhorrence, abomination, animosity, aversion, blackbeast, bother, disgust, enmity, grievance, gripe, hatred, hostility, ill will, irritant, malevolence, rancor, repulsion, resentment, revenge, spite, trouble.


Synonyms we may also know for hate: black, hispanic, white, suspicious, racist, profile, teenager, etc.


  Hatred is a powerful thing and a lot of people perceive it in many ways; that dirty look someone gives you, a honk of a horn, a punch in the face, an aggressive word tossed your way. There's an abundance of hate, it's "a constant presence. Throughout world history there has never been a shortage of justification for it." As our world grows more advanced we find different and creative ways to express ourselves, express our emotions of love, opinions, and hate.


  I stumbled across an editorial, Fight Ignorance and the Hatred it Spawns, and it was mostly about the Holocaust but also about how hate is seeping through everything we do as a human race. Take the issue about Tryvon Martin as "911 Calls Paint Picture of Chaos After Florida Teen is Shot." This blog entry was posted a day after the editorial about hate. Racism and suspicion are types of hate and I think that this issue with "[t]he death of Tryvon Martin, an unarmed teen who was shot while walking in his neighborhood," brings up why we still deal with hate.


  Tryvon Martin's story is summarized as a young black teen walking to his father's house in a gated community is followed by George Zimmerman, who is a neighborhood watch volunteer, in his truck. Zimmerman follows Tryvon whilst talking on the phone with 911. The blurry details start when Zimmerman is assumed, via 911 recordings, to get out of his truck and approach Tryvon within the gated community about why he is "up to no good." Several 911 calls are made by the surrounding neighbors about screams of 'help' and a single shot fired almost immediately after Zimmerman hangs up the phone with the police. There currently has not been any arrests for Zimmerman as he claims self defense.


  The controversy with this story is race, Tryvon's family feels that if he were white he would receive better treatment about his case than if he were black, they also feel that if Tryvon's killer were black he'd already be in jail by now. Truthfully, [y]ou don't have to go far to find evidence of the deterioration of civility in public discourse," it's already there; racism, suspicion. In my understanding of this case racism has little part in it, it's suspicion, ignorance and assumptions that fuel hate labeled as 'racism.'


  Zimmerman states that Tryvon "is a black male," in my understanding, as a description. In his following phone call he describes Tryvon as something being "wrong with him" and that "he's got something in his hands. I don't know what his deal is." To me that isn't racism, that's a typical profiling of someone you think is suspicious, an ignorant suspicion.


  Further into the debate about Tryvon's shooting and Zimmerman's jail elusive self-defense plea all the media as well as family speakers talk about is race and the injustice Tryvon's family has grieved through. Injustice? Yes, I agree as clearly within the police calls and the reports of other neighbors Zimmerman confronted Tryvon with nothing but hate for what Zimmerman thought he represented and shot Tryvon, killing an innocent teenager. Racism? No, police are doing what the system we have in place attempts to do, Capt. Darren Scott, the "acting African-American chief "on this case; "It may not be perfect but it's the only one we have. I urge everyone to let the system take its course."


  Tryvon's unjustly murder was brought to Austin in several ways, one controversial way included; "The Daily Texan Editorial Cartoon Stirs Up Controversy." A student made a comic that created controversy about what it tried to portray. Another way; Austin supported The Tryvon Martin Rally, a rally held to support Tryvon and his family and the prejudiced shooting and profiling that befell him. Austin also plans to rework the 'Stand your Ground Law' that allows "more leeway to attack and even kill someone who is threatening them."


  Hate is everywhere and in varying degree's. My opinion on this issue, and this case in particular, will be different than others as they feel different about hate. I think that Zimmerman should go to jail for unjustly profiling what he assumed to be a teenager "up to no good" when really it was a teenager walking home to his father. I also think that maybe it's hate towards the so thought prejudice cops who work Tryvon's case fuel's Florida, Houston, Dallas, and Austin's anger enough that it's spread this far. The involvement or, possibly lack of involvement, of the police is difficult to judge as they view that legally the evidence is at war with itself and it's a 'word against word' match. Hate is powerful.


  If you wish to follow Tryvon Martin's case the following links are listed as cited works and viewer interest:
911 Calls Paint Picture of Chaos After Florida Teen is Shot
Tryvon Martin Rally
The Daily Texan Editorial Cartoon Stirs Up Controversy
Fight Claims, Pot Put Fla. Teen's Side on Defense
Tryvon Martin and Stand Your Ground Law

A Little M3nT/\L or Mental?

There is no such "condition" as "schizophrenia," but the label is a social fact and the social fact a political event. - R. D. Laing 

  Grits for Breakfast offers up a nice piece of thought on what our society's criminal state might be in with an: article titled, 'Townsend: 52% in Texas youth prisons suffer mental health problems.' This is an article in which Cherie Townsend, an executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, pleads for officials to "improve their early intervention efforts" to help juvenile delinquents before they even become one. She uses the percentage, "52 percent of teens and other youngsters held at the state's six juvenile detention facilities have been diagnosed with at least moderate mental health problems," while the adult system has "1/4 to 1/3 of offenders with mental illness" diagnosed with severe mental illness. There's a big difference here that Cherie seems to ignore; you can't compare two systems on two different scales if you're trying to show percentages. The juvenile system includes moderate illness while adult systems only include severe illness, how can you compare when you don't have all the data?


  Continuing this article it points out another thing that Cherie Townsend missed. Rep. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican legislator, "suggested authorities might be classifying too many young people as having mental health problems." We all hear about teenagers going through a rebellious phase and act out, it's a natural step in growing up so should we slap a DSV-IV label on them and dope them up with drugs? Rep. Charles Perry thinks that we already are, "I know kids that act out that have no mental health issues."


  I agree with Rep. Charles Perry and the opinion of Grits for Breakfast, that we love to label and provide a miracle pill that will cure your 'sickness.' Daydream a little? Oh, you're ADD, here's a bottle of medication to help you focus. Your kids talks back to you? Don't worry, he has an anxiety disorder and there's medication for that. Juveniles put in the justice system are judged constantly for their crime and when they don't talk about why they did what they did and they're "diagnosed with mental illnesses, too frequently and sometimes inappropriately, in hope that their behavior issues can be medicated away." Although there are mentally ill people out there, some in the criminal systems just got a bad hand; "a crappy home life, absent or ineffective parents, poverty, grief, etc."


  All in all, if 52% of our juvenile system is mentally unhealthy then maybe we all might need a Mental Health Hotline?