At 8-something in the morning, I received a text from TC that I had to read a few times to comprehend: "Heading to Stuart. My dad died this morning in the hospital." WHAT???? Just 4 days ago, we were all partying together. The rest of the day was spend in a bit of a fog, trying to wrap my mind around what my best friend was going through and understand my own loss of a man who was a part of my extended family for the past 20 years.
I had plans that evening to go see "The Laramie Project" with friends at our local high school for the performing arts. It didn't seem right to go see a play when T was dealing with all of this, but staying home wouldn't help T at all. Figured the play might be a good diversion, plus I needed the hugs from my friends.
The Laramie Project was interesting and well done. This is what the Tectonic Theatre Project says about the play: In October 1998 Matthew Shepard was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. Five weeks later, Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie, and over the course of the next year, conducted more than 200 interviews with people of the town. From these interviews they wrote the play The Laramie Project, a chronicle of the life of the town of Laramie in the year after the murder. THE LARAMIE PROJECT is one of the most performed plays in America today.
I have no tolerance for hate crimes, actually for hate of any kind. Additionally, it scares me - a lot. Going to see this play was a bit of a personal victory for me. The students did a very good job, in my opinion, and should be congratulated.
Following the play, there was a panel discussion featuring Angela Corey (State Attorney), Josephine Jackson (Executive Director of the Office Of Equity and Inclusion, DCPS) and Lori Jacobson (Co-President of the Theatre Parent Group and Human Resource Manager, Smurfit Stone). Ms. Corey answered most of the questions. She talked about how her office is working diligently on prosecuting criminals in what is now the murder capitol of the US, and explained that while we don't have "hate crime legislation," what we have is a hate crime enhancement. If a crime is deemed a hate crime, then the sentence is enhanced.
WBC (Westboro Baptist Church out of Kansas) said they were going to protest the play. A counter-protest was planned, but as a DA Alumn so eloquently put, "The best protest we can do is to fill the theatre." WBC didn't show - and I'm glad they didn't. (To quote another friend, they're "bat-shit crazy.")
On my way home, I was thinking again about Wayne. I actually found a smile. Why? Because one of his biggest things was "What do you care what they think?" Sometimes you have to care what "they" think because otherwise you could get beat up (or killed as in Matthew Sheperd's case), but what a wonderful, confident way to look at life.
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