Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Condemning hate speech and hate-motivated violence.
Body
WHEREAS, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and Seeking Tolerance and Justice Over Hate (STAJOH) stand together in solidarity to speak out against a growing epidemic of hate speech and hate-motivated violence, and the recent growth of hate groups throughout the country; and,
WHEREAS, Dr. King once said, “What affects one of us, affects all of us.” and the EOC and STAHOH speak with one voice, pledging to stand up against the perpetrators of hate crimes and proponents of hate to the full extent allowable under the rule of law; and,
WHEREAS, on June 10, 2009, a lone gunman invaded the sacred space of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC and the gunman murdered a security guard, Stephen T. Johns, while spreading resonant trauma to over two thousand museum visitors; and,
WHEREAS, Mr. Johns showed extraordinary bravery in preventing the assailant’s entry into the museum; an action that likely saved countless other innocent lives. He leaves behind a wife and young son; and,
WHEREAS, the EOC and STAHOH ask members of the greater Madison community to give generously to a fund, which has been established and will be administered locally by the Madison Jewish Community Council, as a means of helping ensure his surviving family’s future financial security; and,
WHEREAS, Mr. Johns’ alleged killer has a long history of Holocaust denial, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and racist hate speech on the web and in other writings and when the record of this tragedy is reviewed many years from now, it is hoped that the perpetrator’s name will be long forgotten, but that the name of security guard Stephen T. Johns will be long remembered; and,
WHEREAS, this hate crime does not exist in isolation and it follows the murder two weeks ago, in Wichita, of Dr. George Tiller in his church by a gunman who could not see the moral contradiction inherent in...
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