What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
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   Wednesday, September 22, 2004

CAN OF WORMS

Look what happens when you look under the rock at a guy like Jimmy Swaggart -- I wandered over to HateCrime.org to illustrate a point and soon found myself reading a memorial site for Bill Clayton, written by his mother. Bill was a gay teen who killed himself in 1995, after having been both sexually and physically assaulted in two separate, terrible incidents. As his mother explains,

He didn't leave a suicide note, but he had said to me before he was hospitalized after the rally that he was just tired of coping. It was the constant knowledge that at any time he could be attacked again simply because of who he was, that at any time his friends could be attacked for the same reason, that despite the love of his family and friends all he could see ahead was a lifetime of facing a world filled with hate and violence, going from one assault to another. He was 17 years old - an age when kids are supposed to be excited about moving out into the world as adults. The only place he felt safe was at home. He saw no hope, so he chose to end his life.

I wish that story were sadder to me. I wish it didn't feel so...common. Most of all, I wish Bill could've hung on another few years. Things are better now, even though I surprise myself for thinking that. I see little evidence -- I know that Bill's vision of "a world filled with hate and violence" is not incorrect -- but there are enough people out there with brains, energy, wisdom and big, big mouths that the bullies don't seem so terrifying. Bill needed to meet more of them.