Off- Topic but Urgent!
Bearnaked Joe
Sunday, October 18, 1998
My friends,
The death of Matthew Shepard is an example of the extreme ends that hatred
can bring. Matthew was murdered: tied to a fence, tortured and left 36 hours
for dead - only because he was gay. The next victim of hatred could be your
brother, sister, friend, mother, father, or lover. The next death could be
your son's, daughter's, or your own.
The Hate Crimes Prevention Act
http://www.hrc.org/issues/leg/hcpa/index2.html ) allows tougher sentencing
and Federal investigative resources for violent crimes committed against
someone because of the "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national
origin, sexual orientation, gender, or disability" of the victim. Please
help prevent anything like this from happening again. Ask Congress to take a
break from scandal and do some real work. Help pass this bill that can deter
hatred from ending yet another much too young life.
Call Trent Lott's office - (202) 224-3135 and (202) 224-6253
Call Newt Gingrich's office - (202) 225-0600 and (202) 225-4501
Call your Congress members' offices.
Senate roster ( http://www.hrc.org/congress/senate/senate.html )
House roster ( http://www.hrc.org/congress/house/house.html )
Please find out if they have already cosponsored
http://www.hrc.org/issues/leg/hcpa/cslist.html )
the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (meaning they have officially voiced support
for the bill) prior to calling! If they are a cosponsor, thank them and urge
them to push for its immediate passage. If they
have not, demand their support of the bill.
Ask your family and friends to take the same actions. Please forward this
e-mail to as many people as you can. It is not a chain letter and will not
bring you luck or money. But your actions may save someone's life.
http://www.hrc.org/index2.html - HRC Online Action Center
http://www.iamproud.com/~bearnakedjoe/urgent.htm
'( '-' )' Bearnaked Joe
http://www.iamproud.com/~bearnakedjoe/home.htm
To reply, you must remove the underscore " _ " from my address
Arthur Levesque
BJ>The death of Matthew Shepard is an example of the extreme ends that
BJ>hatred can bring. Matthew was murdered: tied to a fence, tortured and
BJ>left 36 hours for dead - only because he was gay...
His killers are already eligible for the death penalty. Exactly how
do you propose to make their punishment stricter? Exactly how would the
existence of hate crime laws have stopped his killers, if the existing
laws against murder didn't stop them?
Hate crime laws, flag-burning laws, and other thought crime laws are
morally repugnant; and even more disgusting and repulsive are the people
who take a tragedy like Matthew Shepard's death and try to use it to
further their own political goals.
--
/\ Arthur Levesque 2A4W <*> b...@boog.orgASM =/\= http://boog.org __
\B\ack King of the Potato People <fnord> "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!" (oO)
\S\lash Member of a vast right-wing conspiracy (-O-) Urban Spaceman /||\
\/ I was a lesbian before it was fashionable "I hate rainbows!"-EC