Thursday, Febraury 9,1995
Sick and tired?
I've been reading with interest the
series of letters to the Editor that
followed Alicia Hartman's article
dated December 3, 1994 in the
Collegian.
What interests me the most about
the remarks of ALL writers,
including Alicia, is how "sick" and
"tired" everybody is... Alicia's
"tired and doesn't care" about
people dying from AIDS; John
Champagne is "sick of reading
columns like Alicia's that contribute
to a climate of ignorance”; and Mike
Simmons is sick of reading what he
calls "shrill, illogical personal
attacks leveled by alleged
proponents of cultural diversity and
tolerance toward anyone who
disagrees with them."
People get "sick and tired" in lots
of different ways on lots of
different levels. A new Saturday
night sport in Texas known as fag
bashing has taken a certain "sick
and tired" to the extreme. Grizzly
discoveries have been published in
Vanity Fair magazine (Feb. 1995).
I offer the following excerpts of
where "sick and tired" to the
extreme, along with being raised in
ignorance of human beings different
from oneself can lead.
In one incident at Reverchon
Park, a high school kid, with his
buddies, killed two gay men. He
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bragged about it, how he stuck the
gun in one victim's mouth before
shooting him and stepped on the
other man's leg and shot him as he
tried to crawl away. From the
Judge: "These two guys wouldn't
have been killed if they hadn't been
cruising the streets picking up
teenage boys." (The two victims
had not solicited the murderer for
sex).
In another incident, Thanh and
Hugh were surrounded while they
sat at a picnic table with
McDonald's food. Two assailants
started pistol whipping them
chanting "sissies," "queers,"
"faggots," and "gooks." They were
beaten then ordered to stand against
a wall. A 19 year old fired as his
buddy urged, "Go ahead and shoot
them. It's not hard to do." Thanh
got a fatal wound to his stomach.
In shock, he tried to run for help.
What he got was another beating
from the trio after they pulled his
shorts to his knees as he died.
And then there's Donald Aldrich
from Rockwell, Texas and his view
that "the queers have everything."
"I work all my life tryin' to have
something nice and here they are,
doing something God totally
condemns in the Bible. They've
got all these good jobs, can sit back
in a air-conditioned building not
having to sweat, and they've got
money, nice cars and apartments.
Yea -1 resented that." He tells of
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the time he and his buddies held a
man at bay in a freezing lake for
several hours while they fired shots
over his head. The said intentions
were to instill fear and see that pure
unadulterated look of terror on the
victim who didn’t know if he was
going to live, die or get tortured.
"You could say 1 got a little bit of
pleasure out of it." One of
Aldrich's victims, Nicholas West,
was driven to a remote spot. This
is where it got really good for
Aldrich. He discovered that West
was so scared that he defecated his
pants. "I thought it was hilarious.
When you scare a man so bad that
he literally shits on himself, that
man is scared." He described the
sensation as like being on drugs. "I
enjoyed it, I really did." West was
ordered to remove his pants and
shoes. Seven shots after a beating
and then the fatal bullet in the back
of the head. An investigator's
comment on Aldrich: "He's not
perceiving he's doing anything
wrong, because this is a fag. Not a
store owner or a preacher. This is a
fag."
And finally there's a San Angelo
high school newspaper headline:
Students Declare War on
Homosexuality. A portion reads:
"In the dark of the night after
homework is complete, teenage
students stalk male homosexuals.
'I want them to die when we do it,'
a student said. Bashers claim part
The Collegian encourages Letters to the Editor on
coverage or current issues. All letters should be typed
and signed by no more that two persons and can be
mailed to The Collegian office addressed to the editors.
OFFICE of the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES
FRIENDS Of Bl
Copy BAtora
Michelle Grucndl
Office Muuger
' VB -*~
roex 4ucjvich
of the fun is from the adrenaline
rush they receive. 'A couple of
friends and I were driving down the
fag drag, when we noticed there
was whole carload of them sitting
and kissing, so we got out our
baseball bats, shattered their
windows, and beat them. After we
are done, they are on the ground in
a bloody heap."’
Where does all of this leave
YOU? Anyone feeling sick or
sickened? In the dark and still of a
movie theater last summer as the
credits rolled after Schindler's List,
my friend said, "I wanna stand up
and say to this audience that feeling
sick and weeping about what you
just saw is not enough. Remember
how you feel RIGHT NOW and go
DO something about it." I hear
that How much does one have to
SEE to be able to FEEL compassion
for those among us who are
suffering? People who discover
they ARE NOT heterosexual and
people who discover they ARE HTV
infected do enough soul searching
...enough self-blaming ... and
doubting ... and hiding. They
don't need anybody telling them if
you wanna play you gotta pay.
They know all about paying.
And then some.
Sue Daley
Staff psychologist
Advisor
Catty Matter
Letter PoMcy: TteCotfagMneaoounges
letters on new* coverage, editorial content
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