RIP Matthew Shepherd
- October 11, 2008 at 11:27 AM by kittyhasclaws
- 79 Comment(s)
- 2361 Total Views
Matthew Shepherd died ten years ago in Laramie, Wyoming. He was brutally beaten and left to die tied to a fence in the cold. It happened because he was a homosexual.
I had moved away from Wyoming just a couple months prior to this horrible incident. I used to live sixty miles from Laramie. It's where we did our grocery shopping. It's a small town by most standards being only at about 27,000 people, including 10,000 college students. Needless to say that there isn't much of a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered community.
It pains me to think of this incident. A young man with his life cut short because of bigotry and hate.
You don't have to like the idea of homosexuality. You don't have to support it. You don't have to condone it. But the hatred... This is what it leads to. Death. Murder. More hatred. More bigotry.
Matthew Shepherd didn't deserve to be beaten and left to die on that cold Wyoming day. I don't care what anyone thinks of homosexuality. Support it or despise it, no one deserves to be murdered for it.
Matthew Shepherd... May you rest in peace. We can only hope people will look back at what happened to you and see what their hatred causes.
"Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one"
Tags: rip, matthew shepherd, homosexuality, gay, murder, beating, injustice, hatred, bigotry, tolerance
- Written by kittyhasclaws on October 11, 2008 at 11:27 AM
- 2361 total views
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Comments:
**I meant to say TOLERANCE...but intolerance and what it leads to needs to be seen as well.**
just imagine...a world of tolerance
Thanks for writing this Kitty. People need to be reminded of what our fellow man can do to someone simply because they don't agree. It is absolutely sickening.
Just writing this brought tears to my eyes and I keep fighting the lump in my throat. It breaks my heart to think of how bad people have it in this day and age just because they are different than someone else wants them to be. They're humans, so whatever happened to loving your fellow man? What happened to the Golden Rule? People cry out for the morality of America to come back by figuratively spitting in the faces of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered people. Where is the morality of that? Where is the morality in shunning or being hateful towards them? It's just so wrong...
i have lost all faith in the human race. i really have. just look at whats going on here on cafemom over a stupid election that really, isnt going to make a difference in any way because were all screwed anyway. the hate i see....and its this hate that is being passed on to the next generation. i have said it before and i will say it again. if the world was destroyed today....we deserve it! sorry sweety to bring the negativity to your great post....i have a migraine, and well you know whats going on in my life right now too. i voted for ya
It's okay, Scoobs. :) I totally understand what you mean. I can only hope that more of the next generation will actually learn from mistakes in the past and try to not let them be repeated.
Holy crap, a scooby sighting! Hey girl!
Brilliant journal Kits, sorely needed as well. You're exactly right, what kind of morality is hatred toward another group of people? It's not. Instead of blaming the drooping of our country's morals on people who are different we should be blaming the people pointing the fingers.
I agree Kitty. I am actually scared for my kids, wondering what kind of fucked up world we are going to pass on to them. Hate is hate. Every time I read about the Matthew Sheppard story, I am disgusted and saddened by it. I don't understand how a person could do that to another person.
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Even ten years later, many are blind to the message of intolerance. And that is just pittifully sad.
Like you said Kitty, depising homosexuality or not, NOONE deserves losing their life over being who they are. NOT what!! But WHO, because gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and trasgendered people are just that.... people like the rest of us.
mom0f3angels Oct. 11, 2008 at 11:48 AM