Yesterday, I posted about how we as a country need to move past traditions of hate and violence. Today, I read a post from Queerty, which exemplifies the type of vitriol we as a country and as members of the human race need to steer clear of.

Sally Kern, the Oklahoma State Senator who is infamous for stating that “[homosexuality is] the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam,” attempted (rather miserably) to clarify her statement that garnered her much criticism. In an interview with Peter LaBarbera, president of an anti-LGBT organization called the Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (obviously a fun and lively group), Kern continued to spew inflammatory statements that did nothing to support her claim that her words were “taken out of context” or “distorted.”

Here are Kern’s words “proving” she was the victim of misrepresentation:

“You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat? And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean.

. . .

[Homosexuality is] more dangerous, . . . because it will tear down the moral fiber of this nation. We were founded as a nation upon the principles of religion and morality, if we take those out from under our society we will lose what has made us a great nation, we will no longer be a virtuous people, which we see happening already. And without virtue this nation will not survive.”

Obviously, Senator Kern was misquoted but only if she lived in Bizarro World, where everything is backward. But she doesn’t live on Bizarro World, and neither do we. If she lived on Bizarro World, then her hate speech would be filled with love and acceptance and her snarling face wouldn’t frighten young children either. On this world, her words are filled with venom and her face, well, I’ll be polite and let you draw your own conclusion.

What Senator Kern fails to see is that there are other factors in the world far deadlier than HIV/AIDS or even terrorists. Alcohol is responsible for more than 75,000 deaths a year. Should we return to Prohibition and eliminate this threat because it is far deadlier than either homosexuals and terrorists according to Kern’s reasoning? Additionally, an average of 195,000 people die each year from in hospital deaths that could have been prevented. Should hospitals and health care professionals who spend their lives helping people be treated as criminals worse than terrorists? If we follow Kern’s thoughts, then yes!

Obviously, the only reason Kern speaks such poison about homosexuals is simply because she hates them. Not because they are more dangerous than terrorism. She isn’t really concerned about keeping Americans safe if the only group she regularly attacks is a group of already prejudiced people, who are not solely responsible for spreading HIV/AIDS.

Additionally, Kern also doesn’t understand the driving force behind the founding fathers of this nation. They were not Christians as we know them today. They were religious men (for the most part), but they were Deists. Deism was the belief that God existed but that God didn’t involve himself with the day-to-day lives of humans. The Deists moved away from organized religion and lived according to principles of morality that included acceptance of others, even those that were different from them. Washington accepted the Freemasons while others did not. Adams declared the accomplishments of Jewish people as far surpassing those who persecuted them. Thomas Jefferson thought very little of clergy and organized religion because he felt abuse of power was common among those of faith who wielded absolute control over their flock.

These men, these Founding Fathers, created this country not to exclude but to accept all. After all, the country was made of immigrants who were considered distasteful in the countries they fled.

So to those like Kern who ask us to follow the nation those Founding Fathers envisioned when they drafted the Constitution and created the laws that governed this nation, they were looking to creating a haven for everyone, not a select few.

One day, I hope Sally Kern finally gets it right.