The Laramie Project

 I visited Laramie Wyoming about two months ago to check out the University of Wyoming, and as we where leaving and driving down the long stretch of highway back to Colorado, already feeling bored out of mind about the dead landscape, we drove by a hill and my father calmly said "That was where Matthew Shepard died." My mom simply nodded her head and I looked in confusion. "Who?" I asked. "He was a gay college student that got murder up there." I thought it sad at the time but did not think much else and the rest of the drive blurred together.  But as fate would have it I am now reading the play, The Laramie Project by Moses Kaufman, that has been written on this horrific event and my knowledge and sadness of the whole incident has come into a whole light. As I read Act one, all I could really feel was disgust. I know that not all those in Laramie are against being gay, but a lot are, and those that aren't have chosen to ignore the bluntly obvious; that  a 22 year old man has been killed over something not worth killing over and it is time to have things change. I think the catholic priest, Father Roger Schmit points out the towns ignorance best. " when we did the vigil-we wanted to get other ministers involved and we called some of them, and they were not going to get involved. And it was like, 'We are gonna stand back and wait and see which way the wind is blowing.'...We are supposed to stand out as leaders...'Wow, what's going on here?'" ( Kaufman, pg.25) My feeling of the first act was just sadness and alittle bit of hate. It has disturbed me how people care more about sexuality, then life and death, what has brought humans to this?
If the youtube video does not work, here is the link.                                    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5OoIaaRlMQ