Remembering Matthew Shepard

I miss "The West Wing." Thank god for Bravo Channel's weekly WW marathon. Not too long ago they finished with the last season and started over at the beginning of season 1. I almost forgot how brilliantly they handled current issues with such "smarts."

Last night I watched an episode that really moved me--as many did. "While President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and his staff debate the appropriate response to a controversial new sex education study, there are fears that the parents of a murdered gay teenager should be excused from attending the signing of a hate crimes bill because of the father's embarrassment about his son's homosexuality" (excerpt from the online West Wing Episode Guide.) It turns out that the "embarrasment" they were sensing wasn't what it seemed. Rather, the father was angry with the Bartlet administration for doing so little to promote gay rights. They wanted to know why the President felt that their son deserved less than full equal rights. Great twist!

The story mirrored the story of Matthew Shepard who was brutally beaten, tied to a fence in Wyoming, and left alone to die. Melissa Etheridge wrote a song called "Scarecrow," inspired by the description of what Matthew looked like hanging near death-- I sometimes use this song in the class I teach at Hofstra to demonstrate how different forms of the media can be used to teach difficult issues. Here are the lyrics .

Matthew's story received huge media attention for a while, but has faded into obscurity. I made a reference to him the other day, and a younger friend of mine said, "Who?" I was taken aback. PLEASE visit the Matthew Shepard Foundation to learn about the devastating effects of hate crimes on our society.