Now would be a good time for some of that compassion!

Hoping to rally whoever is left in their supporter camp, the White House has threatened to veto a proposed hate crimes bill.

HR 1592 rankles the far right because it expands the group of federally protected classes to include gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Current existing statutes omit these designations.

According to the FBI, 7,163 hate crimes occurred in 1995. Sexual orientation bias played a role in 14 percent of those.

Wow, and I thought that we were supposed to be securing the homeland. What happened?

Bill opponents claim a hate crimes bill is flawed because the elderly, members of the military, and police officers also deserve hate crimes statues protection — but are conversely unable to show how these people are violently and systematically attacked for who they are.

Local and state authorities still would be the chief investigators of actions to be classified as hate crimes, but hate crimes statues permit federal authorities to lend their help when needed — including those times when other levels of government don’t want to take an incident seriously.

Unlike a traditional crime, a hate crime targets not only the victim, but also the historically marginalized communities to which they belong — the “we don’t want ‘those people’ here!” reaction. When Americans are unable to come together and trust each other, democracy is undercut.

Those using guns to commit crimes defined under the bill would face prison terms of up to 10 years. Crimes involving kidnapping or sexual assault or resulting in death could bring life terms. What is there to oppose about getting tough on people committing sexual assault or killing others?