America's homegrown terrorists

This week it's been hard for me to keep from thinking about the shocking murders of my neighbor, Michael Lefkow, and his mother-in-law, Donna Humphrey, in Lefkow's home. We shouldn't jump to conclusions, but it seems likely that this was in retaliation for federal judge Joan Lefkow's judgment against white supremacist Matt Hale. Regardless of whether this is the case, this horrible tragedy has brought back memories of another tragedy, one in which there is little doubt of Hale's involvement.

At the beginning of the Fourth of July weekend, 1999, I came home from work, ready to enjoy the holiday. That was before I turned on the TV.

The murderous rampage of Benjamin N. Smith, an associate of Hale, was all over the news. That day he drove through Chicago's North Shore suburbs (where I lived at the time), shooting at people -- blacks, Asians, Jews. Two died, including Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong. Nine others were wounded. That evening, the perpetrator was still at large, and the community was terrified. It wasn't until the next day that Smith was found, and faced with arrest, he took his own life.

When Hale later commented on the tragedy, he said that as far as he was concerned, the loss consisted of one white man (meaning Smith).

I first heard about Hale when I was a student at the University of Illinois in the early '90s. I remember reading in the Daily Illini about this kid distributing anti-Semitic pamphlets around central Illinois. I, like many others, naively passed him off as an attention-seeking punk who, if left alone, would grow tired of being ignored and give up his little hobby. Conversely, if everyone got all riled up, and some did, it would only feed his ego.

When I hear what the bigots have to say, I can hardly believe anyone actually believes that crap. But left unchallenged, the lies spread halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on. While we have a right to free speech in this country, when someone abuses that right in order to slander others, the injured party doesn't have to take it lying down. We need to give Justice a voice, and Truth its walking shoes, or risk hateful words turning into hateful acts. We saw this in 1999. We may have seen it again this week.