Web Letters: Hannity's Soul-Mate of Hate

Okay, so let me get this straight. If some guy calls me, and he sounds good, and makes sense, but later I find out he's really a racist white supremicist, and I don't talk to him anymore, I'm to be characterized as a Nazi sympathizer? Are you also going to judge me by the guys I've dated, gotten to know, realized they were jerks and rejected them? Give me a break!

Lynn Owens

Alpine, CA

This is ridiculous. An "alliance"? Please, first of all, I'm a proud "Latina" married to a most wonderful non-prejudiced white man who would never hurt anyone else. We've been married for eight years now, and over the course of those years I have experienced first-hand that there is prejudice against white people by all minority groups, due to their fear of being discriminated against.

So Hannity is right when he speaks of some of these cases. Nobody is perfect, not Obama, not Bush, not McCain--and not Hannity. But he is certainly not some neo-Nazi jerk type of person, and these claims are certainly greatly exaggerated and swaying people's opinions by making them feel that all Republicans are like that! This is bad journalism. It's sensationalist and one-sided.

Lyss Silver

Orlando, FL

Throughout this campaign, corporate news, journalists, "experts," pundits et al. have been tossing about the issue of "race" and whether it will have a impact upon Senator Obama's ability to win this election. As one who has been the object of the kind of venom that spews from the Hannitys of America, I'd like to say that we could just give it a frickin' rest and acknowledge that ignorance is alive and well and living among us, but that fewer people live in a racist time warp, and their impact will be minimal.

But we've been talking about white and black in a circuitous fashion. The real question is, How many white people recognize the role of individuals, society and the government in dispensing racist inequality, injustice, legal and physical abuse and human disregard, for not only African-Americans but also Native Americans, Hispanics, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, Japanese, et al., and "believe" that payback is a m.f.er?

For all that good ol' boy crap, the real deal is fear. I don't know what that's like, because I was on the "chink, Suzy Wong, slanted p**y, go back to China ridicule, and beat your butt" end. Pain and sadness can make or break you. Yet what I learned is that everyone is a human being, and deserves my basic respect and acceptance until my love and trust is lost.

If the Hannitys of the world could only understand that the only thing that they lose by hating and diminishing others is a part of their soul, they would realize that they have nothing to fear from Senator Obama or from any of us who have been touched by their darkness. Why would we trade the beauty of the light for the darkness that devours them by doing as they have done and continue to do?

Rowena Wong

San Francisco, CA

As left-leaning as I may be, we have to do better than this... An "alliance"--that is a bit of a stretch, even for me.

Jimmy Deas

Charleston, SC

Neo-Nazis have been leafleting parking lots falsely accusing Obama of being unpatriotic, a Muslim and a terrorist stooge. They’re trying to spread an updated version of Charles Manson's paranoid vision of a "Helter Skelter" race war. For months they’ve been blanketing the Internet with their false accusations, since they fear an Obama presidency will spoil their plans. Sadly, Clinton, McCain, some supporters and/or others have opportunistically fanned these flames of hate. And the media has stayed silent about its source, refusing to denounce and reject those spreading it, including hosts and commentators on Disney and Murdoch-Fox owned stations and publications. This further shows how people like Hannity and Turner have formed partnerships to spread this hate and are being protected by the mainstream media.

Chester Freeman

New York, NY

"This is America, after all," Hannity wrote in Let Freedom Ring. "Whatever you think, you're free to say it out loud--as long as you're prepared to defend it. And if you get lucky...someday you might even get paid for it." It is sad that the "freedom of speech" written into the Constitution to allow citizens to "redress the government for grievances" without fear of penalty is being used as an excuse for yellow journalism of the worst kind.

Hannity is concerned about "defending" his opinion, but will he stand up and take personal responsibility for what his words cause? People like to blame movies and video games for violence among youth. It seems to me, people like Hannity are responsible for the hatred running rampant in this country today. How do adults expect children to behave better than adults? I do not watch television anymore and this article made me realize where all this hatred and ugliness among citizens has come from; I had been blaming it on the Bush Administration. Now I know.

Mary Mariano

Long Beach, CA