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Stop Hate 2000 Newsletter April 4, 2000
Dear Friends,
We don't have too many large things this
month. But we do have a
large number of small ones.
The month went by without too many new tragedies to add. But there
were one or two, nevertheless. The body of a gay black youth, Steen Keith
Fenrich, was found early in the month on Long Island, New York. He had
been missing for some time. His father, John Fenrich, was terribly upset
by the news, and committed suicide shortly after. Steen's skull had
been marked with a slur about his being both black and gay. In Canada, the
last trial of the many assailants of Reena Virk went to the courts: there
will be appeals from the two murder convictions.
However, there were some other things this past month too. This
time of year is Lent in the Christian calendar, which has its parallels in
Yom Kippur in Judaism, and Ramadan in Islam. The formalities of penance
have more recently been turned towards contemplating the faults within
oneself and desiring to abandon them. During the month, the Pope made an
attempt at it as far as the errors of many Roman Catholics went. To these
were added the statements by the various national conferences of Roman
Catholic bishops, many of which went much further in detail. The Pope's
journey to the Holy Land was meant to follow from those statements. All of
this tied in with the speech Archbishop Tutu gave in Toronto last month,
particularly his comments about restorative justice being a desirable
substitute for retributive justice. No doubt not enough was said, but a
list
of the faults of several hundred million over 2000 years would be a little
long! Anyway, the various documents out of Rome can be found through this
site:
http://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/jubilevents/events_day_pardon_en.htm
We also want to correct a link we gave in last month's newsletter,
and to repeat the story behind it. We have had a call for help regarding
the case of Mike Batey, who, in the opinion of at least one of "the
group", is the victim of trumped-up charges. There is some reason to think
that this has been a pattern in this district for members of many minority
and marginal groups. Anyway, we'll pass on the corrected link, and let you
make up your own mind. The URL is:
http://msnhomepages.talkcity.com/NonProfitBlvd/bateyorg/index.html
Warning: you may get an msn "pop-up page" which is a nice shade of
blue but not too much else. However, you should see a window at the bottom
of your screen which will get you there...we hope! If anybody has trouble,
we'll pass on an e-mail address you could contact.
Another of us has taken an interest in (yet another) march. This
one is scheduled for Mother's Day in Washington, to be called the "Million
Mom March". This one may be a little contentious (it favors gun control
laws), so we'll pass on the reference, and let you decide for yourself.
The
URL is:
http://www.millionmommarch.com
Meanwhile, you may notice some changes on the Stop Hate 2000
website. Our webmaster, the highly talented David Lehning, thought it
would be easier to find things this way. It's likely worth adding that one
of less talented members of our group only today discovered that if you
click on the stop hate graphic at the top of the page, it will lead you to
yet another worthwhile site.
Although we haven't quite stopped calling for more squares for the
memorial quilt for Matthew and many others, it is approaching completion.
At last hearing, it was about 56 square feet in area, which likely
qualifies as a "reasonable size". However, if you'd like to add a piece,
contact us through our e-mail address on our home page. Sadly, there are
always names to be added.
Finally, we'd like to remind people of two other sites. Some time
ago, we reported that a drop-in center run by and for teams at Littleton,
Colorado was looking for volunteers and donations. No doubt, they'd still
appreciate either. You can look it up at (http://www.projectlisten.org).
And while we haven't yet been able to establish contact by e-mail with the
North West Coalition for Human Dignity, we have, thanks to Gabi Clayton,
been able to locate its website. It's a group with which we would like to
link up, and it really seems to be working for the same goals. You can
find it at:
http://members.aol.com/ncamh
As both Passover and Easter are coming this month, we'd like to
wish the best to those who are observing them. Otherwise, we'll hope that
one observation made by Michael Flanders of April doesn't hold true for
you, namely,
"April brings the sweet spring showers
On and on for hours and hours!"
The Stop Hate 2000 e-Team
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