LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
The Way I See It |
by Steve Elkins, Editor |
Easter has come and gone, daylight savings time is backcan summer be far behind? I dont know how the time goes by so fast, but all over town Rehoboth is waking up in preparation for a new day in the sun. Its always fun this time of year to see who shows up in CAMP to say hello and to update us on what theyve been doing over the winter. The wonderful thing about living in a resort community is being able to stay at home and have the world come to us. The CAMP courtyard is already starting to fill up on those afternoons when the spring sunshine takes the chill out of the air. At the same time that we in Rehoboth are counting our blessings and getting ready for days of "fun in the sun," the images of the hundreds of thousands of refugees forced from their homes in Kosovo dominates the news and breaks our hearts. It is a hate crime on a massive scale, something that seems almost beyond our comprehension. I say almost because most gay and lesbian people have at one time or another been subjected to at least verbal abuse and hatred, if not something more physical and dangerous. This past year in our own country weve witnessed the brutal slaying of Matthew Shepard and Billy Jack Gaither because they were gay, and the horrible, racially motivated killing of James Byrd by white supremacists. Yes, I am aware that I am over simplifying by comparing these murders to the ethnic cleansing that is going on in Yugoslavia, but hate is hate and Kosovo just goes to show us what can happen when it is allowed to rage out of control. It also reminds us that we have an obligation to stand against hate crimes on whatever scale we find them, and for us that means the passage of the National Hate Crimes Prevention Act that was introduced in Washington last month. At least Delaware is one of the twenty-one states that have a hate crime law that includes sexual orientation. Unfortunately, in our own country, Christian fundamentalist groups are escalating the violence against gays and lesbians, whether that is their intention or not. The fact is, they are spreading lies about our community and doing it in a systematic and organized way. In a recent article in Open Hands, Mel White, author of Stranger at the Gate: To be Gay and Christian in America and Justice Minister of the UFMCC (Metropolitan Community Church) says that in the face of that untruth, "we have one task only: respond to the untruth with truth. " He goes on to say. "Before we respond to the anti-homosexual propaganda, we must hear it carefully. Find the statements that are clearly untrue, and answer them with truth. And where they speak the truth, even if painful, we must acknowledge it. Inadvertently, they have invited us to a new national discussion of homosexuality. Lets accept!" White closes his article by calling us to listen to the way of non- violence as practiced by both Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He calls us to take direct actions that, like those of Gandhi and King, are not ended until the goal is accomplished. He calls us to "learn to out love our enemies whatever the cost." For those of us here in Rehoboth, busy getting ready for a summer season, distant atrocities may seem to have very little to do with us. The truth, however, is that our response to hatred in any form is the only way we can create a more positive and loving world. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 9, No. 3, April 9, 1999 |