We Must Confront the Poison of Hate Before It Strikes Again

The news out of Arkansas has been heartbreaking. A young couple, Carl and Vicky Brink, were brutally murdered while hiking with their two small children in a state park.  This should be a place of sanctuary, family, peace, and natural beauty. Instead, it became a scene of unimaginable horror. While investigators are still working to uncover the motive behind this monstrous act, we are forced to ask a question that has become tragically familiar in our nation: What seeds of hate and despair are we allowing to grow in our society that bloom into such violent atrocities?

This question is one I have carried with me since my recent journey to South Carolina, where I made a solemn pilgrimage to the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. To stand on that hallowed ground is to feel the profound weight of history and the enduring pain of a community shattered by a hateful act of domestic terrorism. The nine souls who were stolen from their families and their church during a prayer meeting were not random victims; they were targeted because of the color of their skin by a young man indoctrinated in the poison of white supremacy.

These laws did not spring from a vacuum. They were forged in the fires of the Civil Rights Movement, a direct response to the lynchings, bombings, and terror campaigns waged against Black Americans and their allies who dared to demand equality. The first federal hate crimes statute was passed in 1968 to protect individuals exercising their federally protected rights, like voting or attending school. It was a recognition, etched into law, that crimes motivated by bigotry are different—they are not just attacks on individuals, but on the very fabric of our diverse society. They are messages of terror intended to intimidate entire communities.

Yet, today, the progress we have fought so hard for is under assault. The path from the pews of Mother Emanuel to the hiking trails of Arkansas is paved with a series of deliberate policy failures that have left our communities more vulnerable to violence, not less. We have failed to adequately address both the rising tide of hate and the profound mental health crisis afflicting our nation.

The current administration, through legislation like the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (H.R. 1), is systematically dismantling our nation's social safety net. This bill inflicts deep cuts on Medicaid, which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would strip healthcare from over 11 million Americans. For many, this means the loss of access to critical mental health services—the very services that can intervene before a crisis becomes a catastrophe. We cannot feign surprise at acts of horrific violence when we are actively choosing to defund the systems of care that prevent them.

This neglect is compounded by a dangerous shift in policy. Executive Order 14321, titled "Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets," chooses to criminalize mental illness and homelessness rather than treat them. It directs federal resources away from proven, evidence-based programs and toward punitive measures, creating a cycle of punishment that solves nothing and pushes vulnerable individuals further into the shadows.

Simultaneously, the Department of Justice is showing a shocking lack of urgency in confronting hate. The FBI's most recent data from 2023 documented over 11,862 hate crime incidents—the highest number ever recorded. Race-based crimes remain the most numerous, a painful echo of the history that necessitated these laws in the first place. Yet, data from Syracuse University's TRAC shows that federal prosecutions for these crimes remain startlingly low, with only a fraction of the hundreds of hate crime referrals each year ever resulting in charges. This sends a clear message to those who traffic in bigotry: your actions will not be met with the full force of federal law. It creates a permission structure for hate to fester, both online and in our communities.

The time for thoughts and prayers is over. We need immediate, concrete action from Congress. The blood of our countrymen is crying out from the ground, and we must answer.

First, I call on my colleagues to join me in passing a new, comprehensive hate crimes prevention act. This legislation must provide robust funding and training for state and local law enforcement to properly identify, report, and investigate hate crimes. It should establish a dedicated task force within the Department of Justice to monitor and combat the nexus of online radicalization and real-world violence, giving us the tools to intervene before hateful rhetoric turns deadly.

Second, we must reverse the catastrophic cuts to our mental health infrastructure. We need to pass a "Mental Health Justice Act" that not only restores the funding stripped by H.R. 1 but makes historic investments in community-based mental health services, crisis intervention teams that can work with law enforcement, and mental health counselors in every school. We must treat mental healthcare as the fundamental human right that it is.

The tragedies in Charleston and Arkansas are not isolated incidents. They are the brutal consequences of a society that has neglected its most vulnerable and tolerated an unacceptable level of hate. Here in Chicago, we know the cost of violence all too well. But we also know the power of a community that refuses to give in to despair.

We have a choice. We can continue down a path of neglect and division, or we can find the moral courage to act. We must choose to build a nation where a family can go for a walk in the woods without fear, and where a community can gather to pray in peace. We cannot afford to wait for the next headline, the next memorial, the next tragedy. The time to act is now.