ACCORDING TO FBI STATISTICS, hate crimes targeting Latinos are on the rise nationally and have been since 2003. Just between 2003 and 2006 attacks on Latinos simply for being Latino have jumped by 35%. Many of these cases still are not prosecuted as "hate crimes," however. Even when the evidence overwhelmingly shows to any reasonable person that this is the case.

A gruesome but apt example of this was when David Tuck, a known Neo-Nazi and Skinhead, yells out "White Power" as he pours bleach on a Latino's face, sodomizes him with a broken pipe and beats him for five hours. (The state of Houston omitted the Hate Crime charge claiming the charges level against Tuck already carried a life sentence. which prompts this writer to ask why have a "hate crime" classification if it is not about the very morality of the charge?)

So who knows how many crimes against Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, gays and others are perpetrated every day? Not so that someone can get a bite to eat, or even so a junkie can get a fix. But just because the victim happens to not be white, or straight, or in some other way "normal" when posed next to whatever ideal these disgusting groups revere.

And who do we hold accountable for this cancer on our People and Nation?

The Eugene Register Guard brings up how hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric that would have once been relegated to the bowels of our nation's populace—such as in White Supremacist groups like the KKK and groups to which David Tuck have endorsed—have been brought to the mainstream by talk radio hosts (like Rush Limbaugh), TV pundits (like Bill O'Reilly and Pat Buchanan) and even political candidates (such as Tom Tancredo). It slips in under the guise of targeting "those aliens." The Mexicans, of course.

Thoughtful people can disagree about, and respectfully debate, immigration policy: What’s the best way to secure this country’s borders? How many foreigners should be admitted and for what purpose? What should be done with the 13 million illegal immigrants already in this country?

But extreme sentiments, once the exclusive province of white supremacists, have begun to seep into the mainstream. They’ve become the common verbal currency of nativist immigration-reform activists, talk radio hosts, cable TV commentators and even elected officials who smear immigrants as criminal aliens, invaders, terrorists and cockroaches — human detritus whose dangerous, lawless presence must be swept from this country.

Few go so far as to actually endorse violence against immigrants. But no one should be deceived — that’s the inevitable result of dehumanizing rhetoric, as white nationalist, racist skinhead and an array of other groups are agitated by the anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The presidential primaries have done distressingly little to address this problem, and, in some instances, have fanned the flames.

—Hate crimes on the rise - Report links increase to anger over immigration, Eugene/Springfield Register Guard

So we need to find a way to discuss issues like immigration with some sanity and humanity if we care about those same things that our very law is purported to safeguard. Such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For all humans, not just those with stamped papers or pale skin or a lover of the opposite sex.

Because it is clear that being reckless and violent in our speech is tied to being violent in action, and just like violence against women, dehumanizing frames are used to justify and pave the way toward actual physical harm. Julie Oglesby, a 25 year old resident of Springfield thinks that George W. Bush's War on "Terrorism" and the occupation of Iraq have a lot to do with the rising violence here at home.

"The atmosphere since 9/11...and with so many vets now coming home from Iraq with this mindset. It's one where we think in these terms...us and them. I think the whole mood since 9/11 ties into the hate crimes that are increasing."

Hate crimes are on the rise in Oregon, as well. Except here, we don't even classify them as "Hate Crimes." A crime such as three white men beating an elderly black man with a bat or the home of a Jewish family being vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti or a black man having a rock thrown through his window adorned with racist slurs are filed under "intimidation" offenses. In fact, if you check the links above that lead to KEZI TV, you will note that the site won't even use the words "hate crime," instead substituting "bias crime." As if caving in someone's head with a bat is like being predisposed to vanilla ice cream over chocolate. Just a little bias going on.

We allow ugly, violent, hateful talk on our airwaves and from our political figures, even. Too often, this seems to be accepted because the targets are not like "us." And then in many cases where the suggested violence explodes into unfortunate reality, we still refuse to call hate by its name. But If we don't talk about these blights upon our national conscience, how can we change them? What kind of nation is this, after all? True, what we now call the United States of America began with the attempted genocide of Native Americans. True, this nation began with conquest and slavery and theft, and all perpetrated against those that America's European ancestors saw as inferior savages and lesser beings.

How different is this than all the talk about Illegals? About "filthy invaders" who are "stealing" all our resources—words I've had sent to me personally when blogging about immigration issues—but who in actuality are an integral part of this economic engine that feeds you and me and allows us all our comforts? And who are suffering with little protection from the law in many cases.

Are we ready for real change? We cannot change the past. But we can recognize the resonance of the same vile modality of divisive and hateful thinking and we can call it out. All of us, for we all live here, and all believe in Liberty and Justice for all. One would hope.