'Hate Crimes' Motivated by Fear, Ignorance, Doubt

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Byline: Burt Constable

What's hate got to do with it?

We give racists too much credit by dubbing their murderous acts "hate crimes."

Such a taint diminishes the value of hate, an emotion that can be every bit as rational, valid, genuine and powerful as its flip side of love. True hate requires thought, the ability to reason, experience, evidence, logic and even soul-searching.

Benjamin Smith, the young, pathetically twisted gunman who hunted Jews, blacks and Asians, didn't hate his victims.

He never knew them.

He didn't hate Ricky Byrdsong, the 43-year-old father who was walking with his kids in Skokie when Smith shot him in …