In 1651, Thomas Hobbes defined life without order as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” His book, “Leviathan,” asserts that an indefinite lack of order would grant people a sense of entitlement to anything and everything they want. Thus, creating the ultimate dog-eat-dog world scenario.
In order to avoid such chaos and madness, he stated that maintaining a strong central authority is necessary. The most viable option to fulfill this requirement — so that people may live properly — is for people to relinquish certain rights for the sake of promoting security.
Therefore, laws are established for the benefit of the greater good. This, of course, makes perfect sense. However, no human is perfect and everything we construct won’t be perfect either.
Ever so often, humanity resorts back to the “state of nature” that Hobbes describes: relishing in a state without rules. In this state, humanity lives with absolute freedom. This isn’t a good thing.
Independence is a huge facet of a college student’s life. Although Cal State Long Beach is considered a commuter campus, we still gain independence during our college years. From choosing our own classes to being able to lay out on the grass with a book, we have all tasted this new found freedom that comes with growing up.
Students are able to express the freedoms outlined in the First Amendment. This has been demonstrated numerous times on campus through protests, such as against budget cuts, why every student is “going to Hell,” and organizations that seek signatures while we’re headed to cass, or the most recent gatering of anti-Obama protestors.
We must, however, take into consideration that all these instances have taken place without violence because of the value of respect we have for each other.
However, on April 15, one student’s freedom to simply be an individual was allegedly attacked by way of the “poor, nasty and brutish” behavior of another.
That evening, a 27-year-old transgender student was reportedly a victim to a hate crime carried out in a restroom on the West side of the KKJZ building on campus.
“The student reported the suspect pulled the student’s t-shirt up and over the student’s head and pushed him back into the stall,” stated a CSULB press release. “The suspect then used a sharp object to slash the student’s chest.”
The press release reported that University Police believe it was an isolated incident and threats remain to the campus community.
Still, a hate crime is possibly the biggest act of ignorance a person can carry out.
Even more ignorant, though, is to claim possible fraud with regards to such an attack when no reasonable evidence is present to support such a claim.
Have fraudulent hate crimes occurred in the past? Yes. But, to assert that what occurred on our campus is a hoax simply because it is conceivable, is similar to saying that a large earthquake will decimate Los Angeles tomorrow simply because it, also, is conceivable.
We shouldn’t ignore such possibilities. Nevertheless, the mention of them without insurmountable evidence is disingenuous.
Hate crimes have been taking place worldwide and date back as far as the Roman persecution of Christians, Nazi Germany’s Holocaust and genocides in places such as Rwanda.
Allowing hatred to command a person’s mind or physcially harming a person out of such hatred is a crime against humanity itself. We are all permitted to our own rights, but no one has the right to endanger another person’s life because of some opinion they hold.
The suspects of hate crimes allow their passion to override reason, and they become obsessed with hating something they do not understand. It is a shame to see people suffer when others decide to manifest malicious opinion into corresponding behaviors.
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