Sign O' The Times
When I saw this news story, I immediately filled up with anger. A gay senior citizen patriot is bludgeoned with a pipe. The alleged assailant is described as a light-skinned black man, no more than 23 years old.
Before hearing more about Andrew Anthos, I was appalled that a black man could commit such a heinous crime of hate. Only 50 years ago, white men would lynch black men, women and children simply based on the color of their skin. Now, this light-skinned black man is paying the hate forward on gay men, based simply on whom they love.
No justice, no peace.
What is wrong with this perpetrator that he doesn’t know his own history of injustice against him and he violently attacks another human? Hate is a sick emotion, and acting out on hate is abhorrent.
I followed the story when it was first reported that he was a patriot who was gay-bashed. Living on a disability check, Mr. Anthos held his country in high esteem and believed that illuminating the dome of the state Capitol in Lansing for one night each year in red, white and blue lights “would show a sign of Michigan's patriotism and its loyalty.”
It’s touching to hear people have faith in our country in this post-September 11th world.
Mr. Anthos, a gay, biracial 72 year-old man had been riding the bus to his Detroit apartment from the public library when another passenger annoyed with his singing approached him and asked if he was gay.
He left the bus and helped a wheelchair-bound fellow passenger through the snow. He was then followed by the assailant, who allegedly hit him in the back of the head with a metal pipe and left the scene.
The attack left Mr. Anthos paralyzed from the neck down and virtually without speech. Though he was visiting with friends, his condition declined rapidly and he was administered last rites late Thursday in Detroit Receiving Hospital.
With this story, I have lost some of my faith in America – in social and racial justice in my country. If we can’t love and tolerate our fellow citizens, then how are going to remain a super power. Perhaps, our Rome will fall and the new Vandals will cruelly loot us.
Was Martin Luther King preaching in vain when he hoped “to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last’?”
Sometimes, I think so.
Before hearing more about Andrew Anthos, I was appalled that a black man could commit such a heinous crime of hate. Only 50 years ago, white men would lynch black men, women and children simply based on the color of their skin. Now, this light-skinned black man is paying the hate forward on gay men, based simply on whom they love.
No justice, no peace.
What is wrong with this perpetrator that he doesn’t know his own history of injustice against him and he violently attacks another human? Hate is a sick emotion, and acting out on hate is abhorrent.
I followed the story when it was first reported that he was a patriot who was gay-bashed. Living on a disability check, Mr. Anthos held his country in high esteem and believed that illuminating the dome of the state Capitol in Lansing for one night each year in red, white and blue lights “would show a sign of Michigan's patriotism and its loyalty.”
It’s touching to hear people have faith in our country in this post-September 11th world.
Mr. Anthos, a gay, biracial 72 year-old man had been riding the bus to his Detroit apartment from the public library when another passenger annoyed with his singing approached him and asked if he was gay.
He left the bus and helped a wheelchair-bound fellow passenger through the snow. He was then followed by the assailant, who allegedly hit him in the back of the head with a metal pipe and left the scene.
The attack left Mr. Anthos paralyzed from the neck down and virtually without speech. Though he was visiting with friends, his condition declined rapidly and he was administered last rites late Thursday in Detroit Receiving Hospital.
With this story, I have lost some of my faith in America – in social and racial justice in my country. If we can’t love and tolerate our fellow citizens, then how are going to remain a super power. Perhaps, our Rome will fall and the new Vandals will cruelly loot us.
Was Martin Luther King preaching in vain when he hoped “to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last’?”
Sometimes, I think so.
It's hard to love
There's so much to hate
Hanging on to hope
When there is no hope to speak of
And the wounded skies above
Say it's much too late
So maybe we should all be praying for time
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