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Opinion

SATURDAY JUNE 18 2016

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EDITORIALS

Hate crimes
often make it
harder to hate

BY LEONID BERSHIDSKY

The shocking murder of

British Parliament member
Jo Cox and the Orlando
shootings were both hate
crimes that defy political
labels, whatever the professed motives of the killers. Nobody can predict
what will set off a deranged
killer and it would be deplorable to tar legitimate
political campaigns because
a killer identified with one
cause or another.
But its impossible to
deny that these killings
have the power to affect
both the vote on Britains
proposed exit from the EU
and the U.S. presidential
election. Violence is not
just morally repugnant, it is
uncomfortable. In most
societies, people default to
safety and order.
On May 6, 2002, Volkert
van der Graaf, an animal
rights activist, shot Pim
Fortuyn, the leader of a
Dutch populist, anti-immigrant party competing in
that years parliamentary
election, scheduled for May
15. The campaigns fell
silent in shock: The Netherlands had a tradition of
consensual politics, and
violence wasnt part of the
political culture. Yet the
election was not canceled
(as the Brexit vote
shouldnt be, either: rearguing the issue at some
later date wouldnt do
anyone any good).
Who stood to benefit
from Fortuyns killing? His
party, one might think, and
thats certainly what Dutch
pundits predicted. But its
not what happened; the List
Pim Fortuyn collected 26
parliamentary seats, three
fewer than polls predicted
at its peak in March 2002.
The party did about as well
after Fortuyns death as it
would have done had he
not been killed. Only one
party did significantly better than the polls suggested
the centrist Christian
Democratic Party, a symbol
of stability, which emerged
with a bigger plurality than
anyone expected.
It was right that both of
the campaigns in Britains
EU referendum immediately suspended activities
following the Cox killing.
Nobody should seek to
benefit politically from
such a horrific crime. But
that will not stop people
from drawing their own
conclusions.
Indeed, the market reaction and the betting odds
suggest that there is an
expectation that a British
split from Europe has become less likely since Cox
died. The pound and European equities are up. According to data compiled
by Bloomberg, the probability of Brexit implied by
bookmakers odds, which
had risen above 44 percent
on Thursday following the
release of some polls favoring leave, now stands at
36 percent.
This could be because its
more difficult to imagine
voting for the camp to
which Coxs murderer may

have belonged (a witness

says he shouted Britain
first! though the police
have refrained from speculating about motive) and
against the one in which
Cox firmly stood. More
likely, however, its just
that the status quo option is
the instinctive choice when
theres a threat to social
stability. In these circumstances, people tend to veer
away from populist messages, as they did in the
Fortuyn murder.
That also helps explain
why Donald Trump faces
strong headwinds after the
Orlando shooting. It may
be his triumphant, toldyou-so reaction that left
Americans unimpressed. I
think it more likely, however, that his calls for toughness, his hints at a conspiracy theory involving President Barack Obama and his
insistence on an immigration ban for Muslims were
the jarring notes. Most
Americans dont want
crackdowns and witch
hunts. They want reassurance that politicians and
law enforcement are calmly
doing their job. Even if
Trump, who has advocated
banning Muslims, got a
boost from Republican
primary voters after the San
Bernardino shootings,
Americans in general are
more responsive to the
message of healing and
unity that Hillary Clinton
tried to send out, than to
divisive calls that only
increase the sense of instability.
The average persons
brand of patriotism is tied
to the notion that ones
country has ones back.
Even Frances least popular
president in history, Francois Hollande, saw his
ratings increase after the
terror attacks last year. Its
not that voters suddenly
like him better. They flock
to what he stands for the
notion of a state that does
its best to protect its citizens and unite them.
Trump still has some
time until the presidential
election, and the boost
Clinton seemed to get from
her establishment response to Orlando may
fade. The Brexit vote, however, is coming in less than
a week, and the desire for
more stability and social
cohesion after a shocking
hate crime will still be
fresh.
This is not about left or
right politically motivated violence can come from
both sides. The lure of the
political center is strongest
when that violence is let
loose and thrust in peoples
faces. At heart, even those
who feel the appeal of populist messages do not want
ruptures in societys fabric.
The rise of populists on
both sides of the Atlantic
this year may make it look
as though that basic preference for stability is changing. Dont bet on it. The
desire for social order is a
powerful reflex that hate
crimes only reinforce.
Leonid Bershidsky, a
Bloomberg View contributor,
is a Berlin-based writer.

JACK OHMAN The Sacramento Bee

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Time to stand up
for Penn State
The clock is ticking on
the leadership of the Penn
State board of trustees to
prepare itself to defend the
university 412 years after it
first failed to do so. A Philadelphia judge has ordered the unsealing of
records in just a few weeks,
related to Penn States
settlements with Jerry
Sanduskys accusers, siding
with media outlets that
sought their release.
The past 412 years have
been a story of missed
communication opportunities, continued missteps
and an all-too-predictable
pattern of failure. University officials had time
back in 2011 to prepare for
and address a Harrisburgdriven media crisis and
they have time today to
prepare for another possible media onslaught.
When a crisis emerges, no
comment or delayed responses to media dont
make a problem go away.
In fact, it makes it worse,
giving the media the opportunity to speak for you.
As of now there is no
way to tell what portions of
the whole record in the
case will be revealed to the
news media. If just snippets
are cherry-picked and released, then it could result
in unfair damage to PSU.
Penn State needs to prepare for that so good people and their families dont

get swept up in yet another

tidal wave of irrational
emotions and destructive
speech.
Good leaders ask tough
questions, seek the truth,
take a stand and challenge
others to do the same. The
board owes it to the vast
Penn State community to
stand up for the university
and push back.
Wendy Silverwood,
West Chester

Get on path to
renewable energy
A fracking ban would be
true boon for the American
economy and a savior,
bringing hope that we will
have a future without catastrophic climate change.
We would stop being
terrorized that we will have
some kind of gas pad,
cracker plant, compressor
station or such next door to
our homes wafting cancerous volatile organic compounds into our spaces.
Renewable energy is free,
doesnt poison or spill, and
we dont have to pump
toxic chemicals into the
ground to get it. Natural
gas contributes the greenhouse gases CO2, NOx and
CH4.
If proponents of fracking
succeed in promoting and
extracting gas, they will
have succeeded in speeding along climate change
causing us to contemplate
the unthinkable the
apocalyptic fate of the
planet from the continued

Lets not repeat 1968

BY DAVID HUTCHINSON

(Note to all those old

fogeys out there who, like
me, still believe in the
value of the local newspaper: please clip out this
column and share it with
your voting-age children or
grandchildren.)
A short history lesson for
those who were not around
at the time.
Back in early 1968, a
courageous white-haired
man from a state in the far
north rose up against the
Democratic Party establishment and ran for president. Eugene McCarthy

had been an early and

consistent opponent of the
great folly of the Vietnam
War, and he quickly captured the enthusiasm and
commitment of the college-age students of the
era.
McCarthy was running
against the quintessential
Democratic Party establishment candidate, Hubert
Humphrey, who had the
unfortunate bad luck, as
vice president, to be joined
at the hip to the Johnson
administration, and therefore, the Vietnam War.
The great irony is that
Humphrey was a decent
guy, who despite personal
misgivings, felt that he had
no choice but to support his
administrations war efforts. But once he began
his campaign, he made his
position against the war
quite clear. He was also a

Janet Santostefano
President/Publisher
jsantostefano@centredaily.com

SINCE1898

use, extraction and promotion of natural gas and

other fossil fuels, killing a
renewable energy future
that will bring clean, safe
jobs and spare the environment.
Other countries are willing to do what needs done,
many making commitments to renewables by
2050 while we head the
opposite direction; in fact,
with the Clean Power Plan,
natural gas usage is to
increase by 67 percent by
2040. More than 100
countries have already
surpassed us in their use of
renewable energy. The U.S.
renewable energy share is
only 13 percent and Pennsylvanias is only a pitiful 4
percent. There are wellresearched solutions to get
Pennsylvania and the U.S.
to 100 percent renewable;
its insanity to do otherwise.
Jenny Lisak, Troutville

Make it more
difficult
I am outraged by the
inaction of the U.S. government.
People who feel they
need personal protection
and those who hunt are
entitled to own guns by the
Second Amendment.
But no civilians should
have access to military
assault weapons. And no
one with known mental
illness, with a criminal
record that involves violence (including domestic

committed civil rights advocate dating back to the

1940s, long before it had
become fashionable.
Humphreys campaign
got off to a terrible start
when huge protests, as well
as a police riot, broke out at
the Democratic convention
in Chicago. Although he
narrowed the gap significantly in the final weeks,
Humphreys campaign
never quite recovered.
Understandably, McCarthys supporters were deeply disappointed and resentful for how things turned
out. Many of them decided
to sit on their hands and
stay home in November.
The result: in one of the
closest elections up to that
point, the United States
narrowly elected a racist,
war-mongering, paranoid
crook who, by the
way, had a secret plan for
peace. (Does any of this
sound familiar?) And, by
the way, more than

violence) or with a known

membership to any hate or
jihadi organizations should
be able to purchase firearms.
Ban assault weapons!
Expand background
checks! The weakest argument against this is that the
shooters will find a way to
get guns anyway.
Lets make it harder for
them! Its a no-brainer! It
may not be what the NRA
wants, but its clearly the
will of the majority of
Americans. Enough is
enough! No, already way
too much.
Marilyn Goldfarb,
Boalsburg

YOUR OPINION

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20,000 American soldiers

died in Vietnam in the four
years after the 1968 election.
Whats the lesson? One,
elections have consequences. Two, if youre holding
out for the perfect candidate, youre going to be
waiting a long time. Because most candidates are
human, theres just no
getting around the fact that
every one of them is going
to be flawed in some
respect. And third, if you
resent always having to
choose between two imperfect candidates, the solution is to vote for the one
who is less flawed and
consider how you could get
involved, yourself. Thats
the only way to get better
choices in the future.
Lets not repeat 1968.
David Hutchinson is a
resident of State College and
is old enough to know better.

John Boogert
Executive Editor
jboogert@centredaily.com

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