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Wednesday 2/21/2001
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Wednesday 2/21/2001
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 Community should attend speechWake up. Go to class. Eat dinner. Then go see Judy Shepard speak. Shepard will speak at 8 p.m. at the St. Thomas Aquinas Center. Judy's son, Matthew, was murdered in a 1998 hate crime and motivated her to become an activist. Busloads of gay rights supporters are supposed to come to Purdue to from all over the state. If it's enough of a major event when anything about Purdue makes the front page of the Indiana University campus paper, it's an event you need to be aware of and attend if possible. Shepard is speaking for a fee of $7,500, all of which was raised by local and campus organizations and the majority of which will go to fund hate crime awareness and gay rights. Hate crimes are an atrocity. Not an atrocity committed somewhere else out there in the world but as right here on this campus. Hate crimes aren't about money or passion or practical jokes. Hate crimes are about hurting others out of ignorance — a cruel, deep-set breed of ignorance that lashes out in violence and vandalism. At the small end of the spectrum, a house is vandalized and a community must avert its eyes in embarrassment. At the bigger end, Matthew Shepard is dead. No amount of soap or scrubbing can wash away his death. But maybe Judy's speech and the candlelight vigil beforehand can at least wash away some of the ignorance, the ignorance that believes others should be hurt for their beliefs or lifestyle and the ignorance of the community that believes that hate crimes can't or don't happen in them. Today is Lafayette and West Lafayette's "Anti-Hate Crime Day." Celebrate it. Go hear Judy Shepard speak. n Editorial Board: Keith Thomas, Tom McHenry, Melissa Davis and Laura Pelner. |
City to raise hate crime awareness
Teaching methods should be changed
Community should attend speech
Students should receive better seats Letter makes incorrect accusations Liberal promotes honest business
OPINIONS DESK PHONE: Opinions editor:
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