[Peace-discuss] Peace-discuss Digest, Vol 95, Issue 20

Tue Dec 13 11:47:32 CST 2011

I am not in favour of such senseless acts of violence.
(I am not sure that I am totally against "sensible" acts of violence...,
such as riding down birches, or tearing down walls.)

Xenophobia is not necessarily a mental illness but it is irrational.
All phobias are irrational.
(There might, paradoxically, be a place for Zeno-phobia if one is so moved.)

For every one that "goes postal" and acts on impulses there are likely 
hundreds who do
not spring into action.

The tendency for people to form tribes, ethnic groups, cliques, and 
sects (sectarian and non-sectarian)
seems to be common/natural/comfortable.  I don't believe that such 
behaviour is
going to be stopped by passing a law against it or calling it a "hate 
crime".

There are lots of people in the usa who dont like "furners".
Rural America is practically characterized by such thinking but not such 
action.
Are they criminals?  Are they not accomplices to "hate crimes"?

Is it a hate crime to hate those who commit hate crimes?
Is it a hate crime to incarcerate "hate criminals"?
Just because they're "different"?

Should diversity extend to xenophobes the same as it does to the 
kedesophobes?

*
... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self–control. There is no law against these things!

On 12/13/2011 10:59 PM, Karen Medina wrote:
> Hi Jesse,
>
> A vigil against hate crimes would be a good thing.
>
> This particular incident is more likely a case of severe mental
> illness. I'd be happy to support campaigns to deal with mental
> illnesses and for Illinois to raise taxes for this issue.
>
> We do need to awaken campaigns of cross-cultural education, against
> xenophobia, and joint programs with other groups. But not in
> particular to take on this case.
>
> -karen medina
>
> On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 12:42 PM, Jesse Phillippe<japhillippe at gmail.com>  wrote:
>    
>> What about doing an action targeting this hate crime? Is anyone interested
>> in doing that or have any ideas about what to do?  We could contact student
>> groups, CAIR, the Indian Student Association (I'm presuming he was Indian.),
>> the Occupy group, etc...
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 1:17 PM,<peace-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net>
>> wrote:
>>      
>>> Send Peace-discuss mailing list submissions to
>>>         peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>>
>>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>>>         http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>>>         peace-discuss-request at lists.chambana.net
>>>
>>> You can reach the person managing the list at
>>>         peace-discuss-owner at lists.chambana.net
>>>
>>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>>> than "Re: Contents of Peace-discuss digest..."
>>>
>>>
>>> Today's Topics:
>>>
>>>    1. I looked up the stabbing victim's faculty bio (Karen Medina)
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2011 13:17:37 -0600
>>> From: Karen Medina<kmedina67 at gmail.com>
>>> To: Peace-discuss List<Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>>> Subject: [Peace-discuss] I looked up the stabbing victim's faculty bio
>>> Message-ID:
>>>
>>>   <CA+0uwiYxCM5ZuZW_mAi+_MFYWuR0F3BuZpLTmDU2Awb8bpsFTw at mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>>
>>> [ I looked up the recent alleged hate-crime/stabbing victim's faculty
>>> bio and thought I would share, simply because the news stories are all
>>> saying the victim was non-white. I've included a history of his
>>> education (Ph.D. University of California-Berkeley and M.Ec.
>>> University of Western Australia), recent work (2009 to present at the
>>> U of I; University of Connecticut before that), and a photo. On a
>>> separate line of thought, I am wondering if the alleged attacker has a
>>> history of mental illness. -karen medina ]
>>>
>>> === a re-ordering of the news stories so that they make more sense to
>>> me at least ===
>>> A witness told police that the men (the attacker and the victim) were
>>> both seated in the waiting area for the train in the Champaign
>>> transportation terminal second floor when one man, a 23-year-old from
>>> Fithian Illinois -- Joshua Scaggs, suddenly jumped up and shouted that
>>> this was his country and he attacked the other man, Anurudha Udeni
>>> Dhammika Dharmapala -- a 41-year-old law professor at the University
>>> of Illinois who was waiting for the train to Chicago.
>>>
>>> Scaggs appeared to be choking Dharmapala as he then forced the victim
>>> to the floor. But as the witness pulled them apart, the witness
>>> noticed that the attacker was holding a utility knife and the victim
>>> was bleeding. Dharmapala sustained about a six-inch cut on his throat
>>> which bled profusely. Police also found another folding knife in
>>> Scaggs' pocket.
>>>
>>> Although police arrested Scaggs for the offense of hate crime,
>>> Assistant State's Attorney Steve Ziegler opted not to file it because
>>> the other charges carry heavier penalties and he's confident he can
>>> prove the aggravated battery based on the information he has. The
>>> Champaign County state's attorney's office has filed three felony
>>> charges against Scaggs. Evidently the charges are two charges of
>>> aggravated battery and an attempted murder charge. The attempted
>>> murder charge is a Class X felony carrying a mandatory prison sentence
>>> of between 6 and 30 years.
>>> ====== bio =====
>>> Dhammika Dharmapala
>>> Professor
>>>
>>> Ph.D. University of California-Berkeley
>>> M.Ec. University of Western Australia
>>>
>>>
>>> Dhammika Dharmapala joined the Illinois faculty in the fall of 2009
>>> from the University of Connecticut Department of Economics. Professor
>>> Dharmapala is an authority in tax policy, public economics, law and
>>> economics, and political economics. He recently co-authored the
>>> article, "Taxing the Bandit Kings" in the Yale Law Journal Pocket
>>> Part. He was recently named to the National Tax Association board of
>>> directors.
>>>
>>> Professor Dharmapala earned his master's degree in economics from the
>>> University of Western Australia and his Ph.D. in economics from the
>>> University of California-Berkeley. He served as an international
>>> research fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation
>>> and a visiting professor of business economics and public policy at
>>> the University of Michigan.
>>>
>>> Prior to arriving at Connecticut in 2002, Professor Dharmapala was a
>>> postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a John M. Olin Visiting
>>> Fellow in Law and Economics at Georgetown University Law School. He
>>> serves on the editorial board of the Review of Law and Economics.
>>> -------------- next part --------------
>>> A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
>>> Name: dhammika.jpg
>>> Type: image/jpeg
>>> Size: 20590 bytes
>>> Desc: not available
>>> URL:
>>> <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20111208/5c201bc6/attachment.jpg>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>>
>>>
>>> End of Peace-discuss Digest, Vol 95, Issue 20
>>> *********************************************
>>>        
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>
>>      
>
>
>
>    

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20111214/4331a14a/attachment-0001.html>