Li'l glitch in my aim!
OOPSB the sentiment here was right, but I mixed up who wrote the post here with a Swedish friend -- see the comments to sort it all out ---
This blog has a wonderful Swedish friend named Camilla, living in Finland (similarly, a Danish girl living in Norway and other lovely Scandanavian combinations!). While I spend my days fulminating against Flickr (it is freedom of thought, after all...), Camilla is specially angry over the suicide of a gay guy named Tyler Clementi. He was horribly harrassed on-line by a pair of jerk-offs (yeah, literally!), and couldn't handle sudden exposure.
Anyhow, she wrote a sad follow-up, disheartened by various bloggers (allholes, needless to say) actually attacking the victim. You can read her post here -- http://childthursday.livejournal.com/432570.html
I wrote her --
You're right to be outraged about some bloggers' viciousness re Tyler's senseless death -- even a few saying no one should be blamed for hounding him to do it.
You make a good point, too, that some people would react differently if it had been straight sex involved in a suicide. The hostility toward gays in today's world is so pathetic -- mostly losers who are frightened of anything shaking their own "tidy" lives (lives of denial of their own sexual kinks).
You mentioned "evil" in this world -- a valid enough concept, albeit burdened by lots of religious junk. Still, we must contemplate the latent temptation to do something harmful to another human being. Just "for the hell of it." (A telling phrase, though I don't believe in anything so anthropomorphic as another "world" with people in it. Nontheless, if we accept that as a functional definition of "hell," then we see how doing bad in effect CREATES hell right here on earth.)
And that, sweetie, is the working model of the "evil" that you link to Clementi's sad death.
BTW his name is striking -- "clemency," the forgiving of sins; "clement" weather, calm or peaceful. (Just my take, but look up "clement"!)
Now, to YOU, sweetie. The bitterness in you over this terrible crime concerns me. Not that I want you to forget it, nor. To forgive the worthless assholes who caused it. No, they must be punished -- literally "made an example of." (I don't seek vengeance; I seek DETERRANCE -- fear of punishment is vital in a world with evil in it.)
But, coming back around to you! As Cat Stevens sings: "you are young, that's your fault..." Nooo, just a bit of irony! The young keep the rest of us honest. They see injustice and are incensed by it, as YOU are in Tyler's case. BUT you cannot let it corrode your vision, twist your humanity, blur your clarity. Nope, we will deal with evil -- even if only keeping it at bay. And the young will remind us -- by example -- of the good out there.
So, my good friend, DO rail against those bastards, organize protests, tighten the hate-crime laws in every nation --and be sure that the criminals be severely punished. BUT do not let it corrupt your wise heart.
Kisses, your Justine
This blog has a wonderful Swedish friend named Camilla, living in Finland (similarly, a Danish girl living in Norway and other lovely Scandanavian combinations!). While I spend my days fulminating against Flickr (it is freedom of thought, after all...), Camilla is specially angry over the suicide of a gay guy named Tyler Clementi. He was horribly harrassed on-line by a pair of jerk-offs (yeah, literally!), and couldn't handle sudden exposure.
Anyhow, she wrote a sad follow-up, disheartened by various bloggers (allholes, needless to say) actually attacking the victim. You can read her post here -- http://childthursday.livejournal.com/432570.html
I wrote her --
You're right to be outraged about some bloggers' viciousness re Tyler's senseless death -- even a few saying no one should be blamed for hounding him to do it.
You make a good point, too, that some people would react differently if it had been straight sex involved in a suicide. The hostility toward gays in today's world is so pathetic -- mostly losers who are frightened of anything shaking their own "tidy" lives (lives of denial of their own sexual kinks).
You mentioned "evil" in this world -- a valid enough concept, albeit burdened by lots of religious junk. Still, we must contemplate the latent temptation to do something harmful to another human being. Just "for the hell of it." (A telling phrase, though I don't believe in anything so anthropomorphic as another "world" with people in it. Nontheless, if we accept that as a functional definition of "hell," then we see how doing bad in effect CREATES hell right here on earth.)
And that, sweetie, is the working model of the "evil" that you link to Clementi's sad death.
BTW his name is striking -- "clemency," the forgiving of sins; "clement" weather, calm or peaceful. (Just my take, but look up "clement"!)
Now, to YOU, sweetie. The bitterness in you over this terrible crime concerns me. Not that I want you to forget it, nor. To forgive the worthless assholes who caused it. No, they must be punished -- literally "made an example of." (I don't seek vengeance; I seek DETERRANCE -- fear of punishment is vital in a world with evil in it.)
But, coming back around to you! As Cat Stevens sings: "you are young, that's your fault..." Nooo, just a bit of irony! The young keep the rest of us honest. They see injustice and are incensed by it, as YOU are in Tyler's case. BUT you cannot let it corrode your vision, twist your humanity, blur your clarity. Nope, we will deal with evil -- even if only keeping it at bay. And the young will remind us -- by example -- of the good out there.
So, my good friend, DO rail against those bastards, organize protests, tighten the hate-crime laws in every nation --and be sure that the criminals be severely punished. BUT do not let it corrupt your wise heart.
Kisses, your Justine