(Makeshift Memorial outside L.K.'s school; image from the LATimes article regarding the 14 year being charged with the shooting)
Do not stand at my grave and weep,I am not there. I do not sleep.I am a thousand winds that blow,I am the snow on the mountain's rim,I am the laughter in children's eyes,I am the sand at the water's edge,I am the sunlight on ripened grain,I am the gentle Autumn rain,When you awaken in the morning's hush,I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight,I am the star that shines at night,Do not stand at my grave and cry,I am not there, I did not die.
To those who don't know, Lawrence King -- "Larry" -- a 15-year old 8th grader was shot in the head at his school and listed as brain dead (to those who aren't aware: it is the lack of brain activity that, clinically, leads someone to be listed as legally passed away). It has been labeled as a hate crime, as it appears the shooters were motivated by the fact that he identified as gay and was effeminant.
There is an excellent posting on the DailyKos here that sums up some of what has been written and said.
I am passing on posting on pictures of Lawrence -- it seems disrespectful somehow, but I will post some of the other excellent websites that are going up around there:
-A truly beautiful site by his family, including pictures and a vid. (The quote -- mostly attributed to Martin Frye -- above is from the site.)
-GLSEN's listing of all the vigils happening in memoriam -- Oxford's drag show, tomrow night at Balcony Bar, is now dedicated to Lawrence and will be listed there too.
-GLSEN's press release.
-The Facebook group.
-The Myspace page.
-Youtube search on the vloggers that have posted about the tragedy.
Looking at this, I feel bad posting this under something so tritely entitled "Gay Stuff." It's more than that; but, in response to everything else going on, this will not be labeled as a school shooting, it will be framed as "another queer is dead" and it will not be looked on with the same sadness as Columbine. Rather, I feel like we're going to hear all about gay panic. And that hurts me.
Update---> I did a quick Google search, and, as of yet, not a single one of the presidential candidates have said anything about Lawrence King. Shame.
1 comment:
One interesting thing in play is this happened in California. If this would have been Texas or someone else in the mid-west you would be reading all sorts of "it's Texas, of course this happened". Moral of the story—Dumb people live everywhere.
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