A new take on Matthew Shepard

I was only fourteen when Matthew Shepard was murdered in his hometown of Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. Over the years I have learned about the crime and the trial. I did not know about his life before the attack however. This is what has touched me over the past couple of days. I watched the made for TV movie that aired on NBC in 2002. The movie stars Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston as Matthews parents. I suggest you make your teenage children watch this movie as well as the Laramie Project.

Matthew was so much like myself that it scared me. His story was almost unwatchable at times. While in Europe for school he met his first love. That is also the place where he was severely beaten and raped by a group of local men. He was never the same after this attack according to his friends and family. He suffered from ADD and struggled to be comfortable in his own skin. He went through more verbal and physical abuse because of where he lived then most of us could even imagine. He was always looking over his shoulder, wondering if that those guys walking on the other side of the street would cross over to attack him. Through all this pain, he had a great capacity to love and accept others.

What happened to him on that October night in a small Wyoming town was beyond unfair. It was beyond murder. It was an ugly and cruel end to a wonderful life that was just beginning to take shape. As unfair as his death was, it was not in vane. The following days after the attack, while Matt lie in a Colorado hospital room all but brain dead and with his family by his side, something amazing was taking place outside. For the first time on a world wide stage, the nation saw the anatomy of hatred towards this wonderful young man. They saw his parents and friends heartbroken. They saw a group armed with signs and megaphones celebrating his attack and eventual death.

All the sudden people had to look in the mirror and ask themselves tough questions. The head Doctor that was treating him received hate mail and death threats for treating him and for tearing up when he had to give the news of Matthews death to a giant press corps and people gathered outside the hospital. Matthew gave this nation a lesson in the crime of hate. He also showed us the power of love through his friends leading a group of Angels to block out the hate mongers gathered outside the courtroom. His parents gave us a lesson in mercy and forgiving when they gave their son's murderers a pardon from the death penalty.

A piece of all of us will always remain tied to that fence in a Wyoming field Matt. We will not forget that through your life of struggles, you gave us love. Through your untimely death, you gave us so much more. The next time you think of hurting someone through words or worse because of who they love and the way they were made, think about the the young man, that child of god that was left tied to a wooden fence to die alone.