Today i read in the paper that 635 people where killed becaus of thair suxual orientation or gender. The latest victiom was 17 year old EDDIE ARAUJO of NEWARK CAL EDDIE frequently crooo dressed and wentby the name of GWIN. He was killed when some of the men at the party he was at didnt like what he was doing. I think it is wrong when people are attacted becaus of who thay are. As a christion i am offended when people who should know better point fingers and attack peoplewith insalts at other people because thay dont what thay stand for or dont like them. Since i have became a member of the archives i have come to know many of you by your coments. I know many of you are gay or transgendered but i want to let you know i worry and care about everyone of you. It worries me that somone could hert one of you so my friends keep safe and may god bless every one of you.

I could not agree with you more, prejudice in any form is wrong, hate for hates sake. I also have come to know the people in here by there posts and some personally. You can look far and wide and not find a better group of folks of so many different orientations. When I think about this group I know I have more friends here than I have ever had in my life, friends that will come to your aid and lend a hand, friends that are here for each other no matter what. To those that kill and hurt I feel sorry for them, because with all that hate they can never know love.

Thay had the funeral for EDDIE ARAUJO to day . It just seems like such a sad way for a wonderful young person to die.

It IS a sad thing. Prejudice - be it race, religion, gender or lack thereof, etc., etc., is alive and well and probably always will be. It seems that it's learned at a young age these days, far younger than it ever was.

I was cleaning out a drawer the other day and ran across an old elementary school yearbook. It brought back a great many memories, one of them of the first time that I ever met a black boy - I was 6 - for the first time. He was a very nice kid, and being a couple of years older, didn't mind having the kindergarten kid sit with him on the bus. My parents, of course, were just flipped out over it. That was my first experience in racial prejudice, and I did not understand it.

Having followed a professional education track through college, it was also interesting to work with little kids of all ages at the university. One thing that always stood out in my mind was how they would study one another and their differences. Hatred of differences is obviously a learned behavior, an environmental factor. It's a shame that there's really no way to conduct an experiment into such. One would be hard pressed to raise a child in an atmosphere of NO prejudices at all.

Sad to say, but in a way, we all have them. We've all learned them. Some of us are just rational enough to overlook them and go on. Some aren't.

The Inquisition killed "infidels", witches were burned in Salem and many other places. Gays have never been approved of, it seems, and hate crimes seem to be on the increase as well. Such behavior has been around with man since he climbed down out of the trees and started to talk, I think.

I mourn the death of this teenager almost as I would for someone from the neighborhood here. It's a pity to make such a fuss over someone else and their differences. Diversity is the spice of life. Were it not for that, life would be pretty dull.

You are so right, Paolo! Prejudice is a part of us, whether we like it or not.

I had a very interesting experience when I was not more than 11 or 12. Where I lived in eastern Canada there were no black people at all... I mean NONE! There were French and English of course, but aside from our language we were all pretty well the same. I knew that the French kids (Catholics) looked down on us English protestants, but it was no big deal - we kids still got along OK.

I was working on the family farm, far away from any house, in a large hayfield. I was sent to a water pump to fill a bucket of water. It had to be at least a quarter of a mile from where we were working. When I got there, there was a line of boys a little older than I waiting their turn to fill their buckets. As I arrived, another boy about my age arrived also. I could tell by his dark skin and black hair that he was an Indian, probably working for the summer for some farmer. When it was our turn at the pump I told him to go ahead. His mouth dropped open, his eyes went wide, and he shook his head almost violently. "No," he said, "It's your turn!"

In all fairness he had arrived at the pump seconds before I had, which was why I felt it only fair to let him go first. But I have never forgot the look on that little Indian boy's face as I insisted, even worked the handle on the pump as he held his bucket under the stream of water. I guess that was my first exposure to real prejudice... until that incident it had never occurred to me that one person would consider himself or herself better than another. But that Indian boy gave me a look and a beaming smile after his bucket was full that I will never ever forget. I have often wondered whatever became of him.

I had another incident while in college in Indiana. I dated a black girl for a while... I think in all honesty it was just my insatiable curiosity, never having experienced black people before. Nevertheless Dot and I were quite an item for a few months, and with my REAL lover's (Kenny) blessing. This happened in 1959 while the race riots were raging in Alabama. I guess I always was something of a windmill fighter.

One day I was sitting with a few classmates in the Indiana Tech coffee shop between classes. One of the the other guys asked me if I had ever kissed her. I replied of course I had! One of the other guys, from Asheville North Carolina I'm sorry to say, excused himself and ran to the men's room where he puked his guts! Talk about learned prejudice!

That man and I had been very good friends, but I had a great deal of difficulty accepting him as an equal after that simple incident.

Unfortunately in the past few years, just when I thought we might be making some progress in the racial prejudice arena, we have yet another one arising: Muslims vs. Christians. And has been said before in this thread, one of the common prejudices through the ages has been against gays. Interestingly enough, all the time I was in college in Indiana, being very open about my gay boyfriend, I never got the feeling that anyone had a problem with it. Go figure!

When I was a college student in the 1960s and active in the Civil Rights Movement, I was naive enough to believe that prejudice would end within my lifetime. I’m now doubtful that it will end within my grandson’s lifetime (if ever).

This latest case indicates, yet again, how far we have to go.

Charlie has it absolutely right. As soon as we seem to be making progress in one area, something else seems to pop up. My local newspaper had a half page article (on the Saturday religion page, no less) about the recent rise in virulent “Christian” Fundamentalist prejudice against Moslems. (The “Christian” is in quotation marks because they certainly don’t understand the New Testament.)

...is to be prejudiced,

but we cannot let it get the best of us.

We cannot allow ourselves an excuse to use this to harm others.

We just have to be careful. The end of the road to prejudice is somewhere in Genocide. It is a road best not taken even for a short step or two.

It is a very, very ugly thing. Perhaps it is the ugliest thing ever...

A-1

CHARLIEJE it is a sad truth that prejudice will never go away every ware you look people are looking down on other people. Asyou say the next problem is the christians and the moslems. The onley thing we can do is change our our own ideas and thoughts about people we dont understand onley than can we hope to change others. It is also interesting that GOD told his people that we are made in his immage and who ever hates his brother also hates him so i feel thair is alot of christians out thair who are beliving only what thay want to beleave. CHARLIEJE it is good to hear from you again i missed all thoes things you have to say. I also missed your JOHN DEER

That's why I believe sites like this, and the stories here are so important. The best way to fight prejudice is the free flow of information and ideas. The first thing that most societies do when it attacks a sub-group within it is censor it's voice, and then pour out things against the group, without the group having a way to defend it's self, or explain it's self. Many things that you read are troubling, but an educated person is taught to ask questions, and evaluate the material, compare and contrast it, and make analogies, and think for themselves.

Your story reminded me of one myself, it was the summer of 1963 and my folks and I were seeing America not in our Chevy but our dodge. We were in NC visiting my mothers brother and while out look and taking in the sites we stopped at the public pool. There was so commotion going on and this older woman was coming our way. My uncle asked her what was going on, she said those " I don’t ever use this word, not ever " are trying to swim in our public pool. My uncle put the car in gear and we left. He looked at me and asked if I understood what had just happened. I said I was curious about something, is not a public pool for everybody?

Yes prejudice is just changing is ugly head.



Charlie, you know racing flames would really make that tractor stand out.