Hate is getting popular.

I'm watching the national news on CBS. They just aired a story about a shooting today at the Holocaust Museum. A man that has a criminal history and is deeply involved in a hate group walked in with a rifle and fatally shot a guard. They reflected on last week's church shooting of the abortion provider.

Statistics they quoted said that hate groups numbered 600 in 2000, but now there are well over 900! And that's just the ones they know about! Let's be clear what we're talking about here... This is not just a bunch of people carrying around their own prejudices and being unkind; These are organized groups with specific action plans. Members of these groups feel so justified in their hate that they describe it as 'for the cause'. Some of these people were raised this way, carrying on the mindset of their kin. Others have been recruited into the groups.

What is it that makes a person hate a group of people so much that, without so much as an inkling of what those people are like, they wish them dead? I'm sure there are probably many that had some bad experience in their past that they blame on the ethnic or religious roots of the offender. But I wouldn't be surprised if most of them never had any personal contacts with the group they love to hate.

This news story came on right after Papaw took Ali to her church group meeting. I wondered if she had seen the story, how I would explain it to her. I'm sure at eleven she knows such groups exists, but could she possibly comprehend the reasoning?

Today's shooter? The news said there was no indication this would happen. No warning. Are you kidding me? He was a skinhead. Not just any skinhead mind you, but a convicted skinhead with a history of hate crimes. This man was old enough to have great-grandchildren bouncing on his knee. How many generations has he inflicted with his disease?

The statistic still scares me. Why the 50% increase since 2000? In an era where we can elect the first African-America President and ethnic groups blend together in main stream society, what feeds the hatred? Let's pretend the statistic referred to something else... What if there was suddenly a 50% increase in teen pregnancy? Or a 50% increase in breast cancer? Don't you think somebody would be jumping all over it, wanting to understand what's going on?