Not in my front yard

Ah, the Hate Crime. Just the thing to confound my leftist, liberal bleeding heart. I believe completely that one has the right to speak one's mind, yet that leaves alot of room for big burning crosses.

Justices Wednesday will hear arguments in a case that asks whether burning a cross is constitutionally protected expression or an overt threat that can be banned by the states. The justices' ruling, expected next year, could affect laws in about a dozen other states.

First off, isn't it disturbing to anyone that, in the year 2002, this is even an issue anymore? Maybe it's because I don't live in an area of the country where this is likely to happen anyway, but do people still burn crosses?

There are two particular incidents the Supreme Court is looking at. One involves a man burning a cross on his own property, and the other involves a group of teenagers attempting to burn a cross on an interracial family's front lawn. Now it seems to me there is an obvious difference here. If you burn a cross on your own property, then you are a backwards, socially devolved sicko, for sure, but one who is free to do whatever they like on their own time with their own stuff (holy run-on sentence, Batman!). I'd sure hate it if someone told me I wasn't allowed to have my Ann Coulter dartboard (just kidding, don't really have one of those, hehe). However, if you burn a cross on someone else's property, then there is an attack involved, an implied threat even, and that makes the other person a victim.

Makes sense to me. Of course, legally speaking, I'm probably all kinds of wrong.