The anatomy of hate

Hate is not a sometime thing. Once it catches hold it's difficult to stop. Hate has an acidic quality that erodes the mind and spirit. It can also spread to communities and even entire nations.

Scholars talk about "hate" as a continuum. It begins with "hate speech" and ends with "hate crimes." The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks hate crimes in the United States and has reported a dramatic increase in such crimes in the past few years. In a recent report from the Homeland Security Agency, Secretary Janet Napolitano warned that we might see an increase in hate crimes by ultra-conservative, radical lone wolf ideologues. Indeed we have.

Recently, we saw James von Brunn, an 83-year-old white supremacist, murder a guard at the Holocaust Museum. We also experienced an American Muslim soldier who shot and killed several of his military colleagues. And we had the horrifying experience of Scott Roeder allegedly killing Dr. George Tiller, the head of an abortion clinic. He shot Tiller while he worshiped in church, and from prison Roeder encouraged others to kill more doctors who perform late-term abortions.

Hate crimes almost always begin with hate speech. Von Brunn and Roeder had practiced hate speech for years. Both had spent time in prison.

Innocently enough, people have passionate opinions and can say they "hate" this or that idea. Such speech is protected by our First Amendment with limitations. They can even articulate "hatred" for the people who are expressing the ideas. But one must be careful. Hatred is infectious. It can quickly consume us.

We are currently hearing "hate talk" expressed by homophobes, xenophobes, anti-Semites, racists, anti-abortion groups and those who hate the government and the societal institutions it supports.

I was in Poland in 1991 with a Holocaust education seminar. Accompanied by Holocaust scholars, we visited the infamous concentration camps -Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek and others. There were more than six million men, women and children murdered in these camps. National hatred had raged out of control.

I quickly came to the realization that there is a thin line between humanity and inhumanity. Those murders were prefaced by generations, even centuries of "hate speech," speech which dehumanized and trivialized the victims - Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, the handicapped, intellectuals and others. A few of these people were murdered by Nazis, but most of the slaughter was perpetrated by average Christian German and Polish citizens, people like you and me.

We must be cautious about our speech. Civility, thoughtfulness, good manners, and confronting intolerance, even in the most passionate of debates, will help prevent the most disastrous effects of hatred, hate crimes.

• Dr. Eugene T. Paslov, former Nevada superintendent of schools, is a board member for Silver State Charter High School in Carson City.