Burgess Owens: “I rise in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), H.R. 1433. I…”

“I rise in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), H.R. 1433. I think there is nothing more important that we are doing here in this session than this Hate Crimes Prevention Act. We are wasting our time passing junk resolutions, in many cases, and we do not address an important piece of legislation like this. More than 200 Members have signed on as cosponsors of this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I think that every legal or legislative step that can be taken to combat hate should be taken. Hate is a strong force in the world. It is a monster expressing itself in many ways. The hate monster has us by the neck all over the world, but terrorists that we are fighting in Afghanistan, bin Laden, the al Qaeda network throughout the world, is motivated by hate. Hate seems to generate more fervor than love. People who are pushing love and want to do things differently do not seem to have the same kind of motivation or energy. The people who want to destroy our democracy, they hate us because we will not cover our women in public, they hate us for a thousand different reasons, and we need to meet that with tactics and with strategies that are as strong as the hatemongers. We need to have in every way blanket condemnations of hatred, intolerance, and we need to be very detailed in this country.”