hate exists in every country, f'sho. ive been to a lot of european countrys and several times in america. not that much of a difference.

i am german, and what most people who have no clue at all remember about germany is adolf hitler.

so, (over here) every child knows that hitler was a cruel dictator who planned and almost succeeded in genocide on the jewish people.

there are two countrys i have been to in which the people said "say hello to hitler" or "hows hitler doin?" to me (and meant it). one was egypt, bc they hate jews. the second country was the us. i even saw people with "hitler world tournee 39-45" shirt there. altogether, i sensed a complete lack of understanding the history. most younger people i talked to when staying in the us asked me questions like: "do u starve in germany?" "do u have coca cola?" "is germany part of the 3rd world?" " would germans be happy if they would see this truck filled with food?"

what i remember from my trips to the us is people with "america kicks ass" shirt, and usa flags everywhere, and "we stand united" stickers on the windows.

in germany, due to its past, if u say "im proud to be german" u get stepped on by a mob who call u a nazi.

we do have neo-nazis in germany, but they are more like forgotten people with no perspective, who try to get some attention.

in america u have a lot of racism (look at what cos wrote or ask some arab or black people..), a LOT of nationalism, and a serious lack of knowledge about foreign countrys history (thats what i call "ignorant").

and america does only exist since a couple of years, i have been in buildings that where much older than the unites states.

the sad thing is that america is the leading country in the world, the richest, biggest, and best armed - but far from being the best educated.

instead of attacking half of the world they should mb face their internal problems...

Cos, I'm really sorry to hear that man, some sad shit. Some people should really be shot in the head, seriously.

I know exactly what you mean Silver when you say that you get beaten up for being a nazi if you say you're proud to be a German in Germany. It's not exactly like that in Sweden, although it was a couple of years ago, but almost. If you go around talking about how great Sweden is too much, you'll be labeled nazi sooner or later.

Brain, I don't think everyone even watches the evening news

I find it somewhat stunning the talk that this hate crime that was committed against Cossack's property has spawned mentions of threat.  It is hypocritical to hate people who hate people.  Look at Ghandi and the Dalai Lama, their people were greatly put down, not just insulted, yet they stood strong in having no hate, no revenge.  The proverbial turning the other cheek.  I think Cossack used a good word "disgusting" about hate.  Yes, hate is disgusting, but it is important to put yourself above those that are hateful by not doing it yourself.

To present a popular example...The Fifth Element sends this message.  There is this evil object that will kill us and the natural human reaction is to attack it, but as the priest says, evil begets evil.

Sorry that happened Coss....wish I was there to comfort you    my sexy sexy Russian lover. Unfortunately these times will be tough for foreigners living in America due to anti-American sentiment. Some people are assholes and others are upset that we recieve no appreciation for the good things we do in the world. I hope whoever did that to you burns in a massive hellfire.

Bondo...how dull. You've never hated an individual that hurt you in some way? It's a natural human emotion...to deny it is to deny being human.

Damn sorry to hear that Coss. At least you're alright.

I don't hate people who hate people.

I hate people who assault people and destroy their property.

Cossack, I feel you I have experienced a lot of hate for my beliefs on campus in the past few months. No racism though, racism and jingoism are really the worst . For starters, I had a huge poster on my door that said "Wanted for Conspiracy to Commit Mass Murder" on my door with pictures of Powell, Rumsfeld, and Bush under it. I also had various liberal political cartoons. After I put up the poster, the next day all of the materials were torn up and someone wrote "FAG" in permanent marker on my door. It's annoying, but at this point I don't really have any desire to remedy it because it serves as a testament to the ignorance of others.

Also, my fellow peaceniks and I at the U of Iowa have set up a peace camp. It's an area set up in the center of campus where those committed to peace camp and stay all day (when they don't have class) to protest the war in Iraq. Kinda like a 24/7 peace vigil. The threats and violence experienced against our camp in the past three weeks has been unparalleled, at least in comparison to what I've seen personally. Drunk people come back from the bars and assault us. People in the camp have been urinated on, hit, and attacked with rotten eggs. A drunk marine tackled a defenseless girl late at night, pinning her and threatening her. The organizer of the camp has had his house vandalized and receives death threats on a daily basis. All for standing up for what we believe in... it's a sick world out there.


if anyone interested wants to read about the peace camp, you can do so here: Des Moines Register: Peace Camp

Hmmm maybe I'll go check that place out sometime tasty

It is a sad thing that something like this would happen happen to anyone, but hate is human nature. Unfortunately, not everyone can bottle up or control their hate, and often times express it in messed up ways like vandalism against someone of a different ethnicity or heritage.

Hate crimes are inexcusable, and I hope you called the cops so they get their fair share of buttloving in the slammer.

However, you should also be thankful that you weren't home at the time and they didn't go after you.