Re: sad news
Richard -- thank you so much for providing the details, horrific though
they may be. I said I was shocked before, my shock is only mulitplied by
knowing the reason for Gary and Windfield's deaths. So sad, so sad, so
sad....
Nan
____
>
>For the benefit of those not in northern California and who would not have
>heard,
>
>the news has since come out that Gary Matson, who was gay, and his partner
>Winfield Mowder
>were murdered, evidently just because they were gay. The official
>speculation is
>that this was probably
>a "hate" crime. The police have charged two brothers with the murders. To
>those of you in other
>parts of the world, this may be particularly shocking. I believe that at
>least
>in northern europe and australia
>such attacks would be rare. Pitifully, such attacks against gay men are not
>uncommon in the US,
>where we have strong protestant religious movements that foster hatred of
>homosexuals. A strange
>country, this US - a mix of contradictions.
>
>It is ironic that, with there being many gay men in the field of
>horticulture,
>the two charged
>with the murders are also reported to be involved in horticulture, which
>is how
>they are believed
>to have met their victims. They were in the landscape business.
>A search warrant of their home produced an abundance of hate literature.
>I would
>not have thought
>that people who dealt with plants and gardening could harbor evil of that
>magnitude. I
>guess I am naive.
>
>This may be off the topic, but I did not think that real story should be
>omitted,
>or that the rest of you
>should be left with the impression that this very giving man who
>contributed so
>much to his community, and whom you
>probably only knew by his helpful messages, entered eternity by perhaps
>drunkenly
>stumbling over his shotgun.
**********
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Nan Sterman
San Diego County California
Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11
