Hate Groups and Been in Love - Final

The podcast discusses hate groups in the United States and their influence on the increasing number of mass shootings. It mentions the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center as organizations that monitor hate groups. It also provides information about Act for America, a group that claims to promote national security but is controversial due to its involvement in passing election integrity bills and opposing critical race theory. The podcast also mentions the American College of Pediatricians, which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBTQ views and promotion of harmful practices. Welcome to another podcast of Across the Canal, Lower Knight Ward of the Big Easy. I'm your host, Kenneth Magruder, Sr. Today we're going to focus on hate groups in the United States with all the mass shootings that have taken place within the past few months. Something unheard of as I was growing up here in the United States, but it's become so commonplace. Not even a child's life is valued anymore. We were taught to protect children no matter what, to bring them up in a strong, safe environment. For whatever reason, that doesn't seem to be the case any longer because now they're the focus of more and more hatred and violence in the United States. We're going to look at some of the groups that may or may not have influenced or been involved. We're not going to take any side, any position. We're just going to put it out there for you to draw your own conclusion. When you do, go on the website and subscribe so that we can get an idea of what you're thinking about the state of the United States in 2022. What is a hate group? Well, I went to my trusty know-all supercomputer, Wikipedia. They define hate group as a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other designated sector of society. According to the U.S. FBI, a hate group's primary purpose is to promote animosity, hostility, and malice against persons belonging to a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity which differs from that of the members of the organization. Two private American non-profit organizations that monitor intolerance and hate groups are the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. They maintain lists of what they deem to be hate groups, supremacist groups, and anti-Semitic, anti-government, or extremist groups that have committed hate crimes. The Southern Poverty Law Center's definition of a hate group includes any group with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, particularly when the characteristics being maligned are immutable. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, from 2000 to 2008, hate groups activities saw a 50% increase in the United States, with a total of 926 active groups. Regionally, hate groups which are based in the West and the Northeast are more likely to engage in violence than those hate groups which are based in the South. I guess that depends on who you're asking and where they live. That was interesting. Southern Poverty Law Center. First a disclaimer. The articles mentioned in this podcast do not necessarily express the opinions of the owner and management of this podcast. The articles we're going to discuss today in our podcast, Hate Groups in the United States. Now we're going to focus mainly on Louisiana, and you might be a little surprised at the number of hate groups here in the state of Louisiana. This information comes from CNN Wire, and it was posted August 17th, 2017. So obviously, it could be a little dated. Unfortunately, hate never goes away. A little short list. The top five hate groups in Louisiana. Act for America, that's A-C-P, in all caps, for America. The next, Christian American Ministries, Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Israel United in Christ. Now that's just the top five. Obviously, there's a list of others, and we will cover those in future podcasts. Let's look at the first one, Act for America. They have on a website their mission, and I quote, Act for America, education's mission is to educate, engage, train, and mobilize citizens to ensure the safety and security of Americans against all threats, foreign and domestic, while preserving civil liberties guaranteed by the United States Constitution. They also have a non-discrimination and anti-violence policy. Let's read that. Act for America is the nation's premier grassroot movement, dedicated by preserving Americans culture, sovereignty, and security. With over one million members, we stand for the protection of the United States of America and the Western values upon which our nation was built. National security issues transcend all traditional barriers, and we stand as a strong magnet of unity for all Americans to come together in pursuit of the inalienable rights enumerated by our fathers, life, liberty, and a pursuit of happiness. Act for America showcases the tolerant and patriotic nation of our nation through our diversity, as well as by fostering a healthy dialogue about the most critical threats facing our nation from the perspective of a variety of voices. They go on to say, Act for America has never and will never tolerate any bias, discrimination, or violence against anyone based on their religion, gender, race, or political persuasion. Freedom to practice one religion in peace is afforded to each of us by the United States Constitution, and we will defend it vigorously. Now the article, and this is most interesting, so listen closely. They go on to say, through our grassroots activism, working with their state legislators, Act for America has helped pass six election integrity bills in Georgia, Arizona, Florida, and Texas. Currently, Act for America is working on 64 state legislative bills nationally. These bills include removing, decrease, de-cease people from voters' rows, voter identification requirements for both in-person and absentee ballot voting, limit use of drop boxes, and expanding early voting. In addition, legislation eliminating private funding of election administration, barring elected officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, reduce the number of times people have to request an absentee ballot, and giving legislators greater control over election administration. Act for America has helped to pass eight bills into law to stop critical race theory through state legislative action in 2021. Critical race theory has been making steady progress, being introduced into many institutions, and is making rapid strides daily. If critical race theory takes hold, it will change the very nature of America and the way we live. Critical race theory holds that the most important thing about you is your race, not your behavior, your character, your values, or your environment. Critical race theory is uniquely un-American and rejects the core tenets of the American Judeo-Christian value system. Act for America is currently working on 28 bills through its extensive grassroots network and legislative actions nationwide to stop critical race theory. Okay, does that sound like they're a hate group? Those reasonably non-violent, look it up, do some research, see what you think. Okay, this next group comes from an article written by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group called the American College of Pediatricians. It's a fringe anti-LGBTQ hate group that masquerades as the premier U.S. association of pediatricians to push LGBTQ junk science primarily via far-right conservative media and filling amicus briefs in cases related to gay adoptions and marriage equality. The Southern Poverty Law Center, go on to classify the American College of Pediatricians as a hate group founded in 2002 in Gainesville, Florida, and the only ideology they have is anti-LGBTQ. The American College of Pediatricians opposes adoption by LGBTQ couples, links homosexuality to pedophiles, endorses so-called reparative or sexual orientation conversion therapy for homosexual youths, believes transgender people have a mental illness, and has called transgender health for youth child abuse. The article gives background and it stays through its sound officials. The American Academy of Pediatricians is not the leading organization for U.S. or United States pediatricians. That designation goes to the 67,000 member American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP. The American Academy of Pediatricians was founded in 2002 when a small number of socially conservative AAP members broke away from AAP after it endorsed adoption by same-sex couples. The American Academy of Pediatricians subsequently issued its own report stating that gay parenting puts children's health and development in high risk. The American Academy of Pediatricians has continued to be a far-right media favorite and predominant voice in anti-LGBT circles. On July 24, 2017, episode of Tucker Carlson, Tonight on Fox News, then ACP, then the American Academy of Pediatricians president, Critella, continued her attack on transgender ideologies. Sex is hard wire from before birth and it cannot change, Critella said, and that's why we have actually called this child abuse because by feeding children and family these lies, children are having their normal psychological development interrupted. This is child abuse. It's not healthcare, unquote. While the American Academy, while the American College of Pediatricians may sound sufficiently marginalized within the medical and mental health professional communities, that hasn't stopped the far-right from using its debunked pseudoscience to back anti-LGBTQ agendas. The organization engages in court cases and files amicus briefs, often filled with pseudo-scientific claims and research. The brief cited and credited anti-LGBTQ research while attacking legitimate research by professional organizations like the American Psychological Association. Van Meter, who is popular on the anti-LGBTQ circuit, touts the discredited practices of conversion therapy in addition to anti-trans pseudoscience. Van Meter testified to the Alabama state legislature in early 2020 in favor of legislation that would criminalize gender-affirming healthcare for children. He went on Tony Perkins' radio show March 5th to discuss his testimony in Gender Dysphoria. Van Meter referred to the latter as gender confusion, a right-wing term used to denigrate transgender people. Van Meter claimed that gender confusion is sort of a cult phenomenon influenced by internet access and hysteria. Have You Ever Been In Love? By Oscar Limas Have you ever just left someone and it seems they have been gone for hours? Maybe you are just a bad judge of time, or just maybe it's something else. Have you ever met someone whose eyes, nose, lips, voice, legs, attitude, smile, and hips were perfect and the only thing you could find wrong with them was that they were with someone else? Just maybe you were dreaming and scheming. Have you ever met someone who made you tangle your words, stumble over your feet and forget you're hungry when it's time to eat? Maybe you are just clumsy and shy, or just maybe. Have you ever met someone whose touch sends chills through your body and causes you to sweat? Maybe or just maybe you had the flu. Have you ever held someone in your arms so tightly it was hard for you to breathe and yet you didn't feel close enough? Maybe. Have you ever met someone who wanted to give you the moon and all you wanted was to hold their hand? Have you ever met someone whose eyes, nose, lips, legs, attitude, smile, and hips were not perfect and your eyes had never seen anyone so beautiful? Maybe or just maybe. Have you ever met someone who makes you so mad and they seem to enjoy it and you would rather be with them than someone who makes you smile? Maybe. Have you ever met someone to whom you would give your coat and hat while you walk in the cold and rain and it hurts you more to see a tear in their eyes than it did when you hit your hand with a hammer? No? Maybe. Have you ever met someone you filled your life with joy and pain and more feelings and questions than you can explain? If you don't know the answer, just say maybe. For sure. I don't know if you have ever been in love, but if many of the things above have affected you, maybe you have some serious mental, medical, or physical conditions. Or just maybe, you have been in love. By Oscar Limas Well, that ends another podcast of Across the Canal, Lower Ninth Ward of the Big Easy Podcast. Again, I'm your host, Kenneth McGruder, Sr. We love to have your feedback. Tell us what you think, ideas, suggestions, whatever. Subject matters. And we'll see if we can't make it happen because this is your podcast. So remember, today is the first day of the rest of your life.