Re: sad news


I can only agree - although I only knew Gary via his postings it was quite a 
shock - it really given one pause to realise that somebody who was so 
engaged and engaging could be so vulnerable to attack. Richard is right that 
such things are not really known in Australia - it doesn't mean that we 
don't have our share of those who hate and who don't try to victimise others 
- but nothing as targetted or violent as this to my knowledge. I guess 
naively I tend to assume that because of a common interest in gardens and 
plants that a kind of comradeship also exists - doubly appalling if it was 
this interest that brought killers and victims together.

Susan George

>
>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.
>
>**********
>'''''''''''''''''''''''
>Nan Sterman
>San Diego County California
>Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11
>


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