Shocking News

Last week, a madman dressed in black entered a gay youth club and began shooting. As a result, two are dead, including a sixteen-year-old girl.

It's heartening (if it's possible to use such a term in connection with such a tragedy) to see the uniform condemnation of this heinous act from so many different levels of Israeli society. I wish that the sources of some of these same voices, such as that of the religious Shas Party leader Eli Yishay, had thought about the consequences of their words when they earlier described gay people with words like "sick," "perverse," and "filth."

Many of the accounts of the tragedy describe Israelis' sense of shock in reaction to the shootings. In reality, however, there is nothing shocking about this story. It is in fact the logical result of a long history of hate, intolerance, and worse, indifference that has been taking place not only in Israel but around the world. It's gratifying that old prejudices of all stripes are on the wane, but tragedies like this one remind us they haven't died entirely, that in fact, hatred dies hard.

I'm not just talking about anti-gay prejudice. Think of some of the ridiculous amped-up rhetoric used lately to describe President Obama. (Glenn Beck, if you're listening, this one's for you.) Think of the insulting treatment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which Senator Lindsey Graham had the nerve to deliver a lecture on manners to a middle-aged woman based solely on anonymous comments about her made online. (Perhaps Senator Graham also ought to be held publicly accountable for every stray rumor about HIS personal life that have made online.) Think of Dr. George Tiller, assassinated for the crime of carrying out legal medical procedures.

When will we learn the difference between attacking ideas versus attacking people? The answer: when we learn that words matter. Rhetoric matters. Attacking people with words leads to attacking them with fists, knives, and as was so regrettably the case in Israel last weekend, bullets.