By Jeffrey Page

Two political observations.

–A friend of mine from New Jersey sent me a one-page document that I suspect has made its way through the Internet. It starts with the provocative assertion “Let’s put the seniors in jail and the criminals in nursing homes.”

It’s silly of course, but I think it illustrates the anger, frustration and political disillusion some Tea Partiers – not to mention just about every other American voter as well – are experiencing this year. It should serve as a warning to the left and right alike that if the tea people increase their numbers over the next few election cycles so that they actually have some clout in the House and Senate, the United States might never be the same. Can you see it? A constitutional convention to consider whether that pesky First Amendment is still needed. It only takes two-thirds of Congress or two-thirds of the state legislatures to call for such a convention.

If the homes of convicts and old people were switched, my Jersey friend says, jailed seniors would have access to showers, hobbies, and walks. But prisoners living in nursing homes with names like Happy Vistas would get one shower a week.

Old folks in jail would receive all the telephone calls they wish, but convicts serving their time in a nursing home would live in tiny rooms for which they’d have to pay something like $5,000 a month.

You get the point.

–Various people who claim to speak for the Tea Party movement say that they are not partisans, that they do not target individual politicians but the actions of individuals. They claim they are somehow above politics, but the fact is that they use the political system expertly and to their best advantage.

And they know where not to go. I’m still waiting for some Tea Partiers from the plains to demand that crop subsidies be eliminated as a means of reducing federal spending.

Their often proclaimed loathing of politicians is a sham. So is their conservatism. We have seen the attack on the moderate Republican Mike Castle in Delaware by the antimasturbatory Christine O’Donnell, but have not heard of their embrace of any conservative Democrats. The typical Tea Partiers are older white men. While their philosophical guides yammer on the radio about the need to cut back the Social Security program, I’ve yet to see a single sign at a Tea Party rally calling for such reductions.

Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com

Petit Chien

The other night, honestly, I was feeling pretty low, and I’d been venting by sniping at Peter, who had seemed to be sulky and angry.

“Well you haven’t exactly been a bowl of sunshine these past few days, either,” he said.

Well, I hadn’t, I mournfully confessed, the tears rising. I was not enjoying my job. I hated being yanked around, told to do one thing one day and another thing the next. I was being pressured to finish the directory listings, like yesterday – a task I don’t like and am not good at. I don’t like this, I said, I don’t like this at all.

Most of all, I was feeling angry about the fact that these weeks of working have meant very little painting – and if I was looking at a future of very little painting, I was looking at a future I didn’t like much.

So what was I doing? Why was I working – in journalism, no less – when all I really want to do is paint?

I felt angry, I felt sad, I felt trapped, I felt sulky and whiny and miserable. I could hear my voice rising, and shaking, tears and frustration all wound together –

And then it all changed.

Just like that, I realized that I wasn’t going to quit this job, and so this, all this misery, all this whining, all this anger – it was just me, stamping my feet and jumping up and down, throwing a tantrum, crying “poor me.”

It was all optional, every bit of it.

The truth is, I have a job, with a paycheck and health insurance. Very soon, I am going to be done with the directory listings, and I’m going to be out in the community, meeting people and writing stories.

And I can make time to paint.

Sure, there will be many, many days when I have to do stuff I don’t want to do, when I have to follow instructions – even instructions I feel are stupid, pointless, hysterical. Yup. That’s why they’re paying me. That’s why it’s called work.

Peter and I, and our dogs, are worlds better off now than we were six weeks ago. And I am grateful, grateful beyond belief that I have an income, a way to make a living while I work to make a career.

——

It is not too late to commission me to make a painting for you for the holidays! Send me a photo – of a landscape, a beloved pet, a house, a garden that you love, and I will have a beautiful palette-knife painting for you within a few weeks. The commissions are rolling in, so do it sooner, rather than later! Email me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com and we can get the process going.

By Bob Gaydos

Before I put my thinking cap back on, it seems like a good time to take inventory on The List of Most Influential Thinkers of the 20th Century (and beyond). When last we met, I offered my suggested list of the first 10 candidates, sort of like the undeniable introductory class of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Here it is:

• Albert Einstein
• Gandhi
• Henry Ford
• The Wright Brothers (count as one)
• Thomas Edison
• Picasso
• Nikola Tesla
• Mark Twain
• James D. Watson and Francis Crick (again, count as one)
• Winston Churchill

Typically, that abbreviated list brought some interesting comments. On Winston Churchill, Edward B. Godwin offered this personal remembrance of the British PM’s far-reaching influence:

“Glad for the inclusion of Winnie! In January 1966 I came for a Saturday morning interview for a position in the English department at Orange County Community College. It was a good year for getting a job in my field as candidates with Master’s degrees in English were few compared to those in education. Enrollments were up.

“I had interviewed at other community colleges. Some were over the telephone – truly a surprise. I had not anticipated that experience. I had visited Adirondack Community College. I turned down both offers. Then I came to Orange’s interview.

“Now the relevance: Unexpectedly during the interview I was asked if I were given the opportunity to structure a course, what figure in the 20th Century would I chose and why. No other interview or experience prepared me for that question because I was a new teacher and did not expect that I would be creating a new course. As my mind almost went blank, Winston Churchill came to mind because of his use of language. However, I was weak in the knees and grateful I was sitting as I explained and defended my choice.

“At the end of the interview that involved many questions including a defense of textbooks I had used in teaching, I was offered a job. In later years I came to understand that it was the process of my thinking and use of language and materials that was being examined that day. Some of the contemporary authors mentioned in the interview I had to acknowledge I hadn’t read. However, I had read much of Churchill and history then and throughout my life.

“Language of our time reflects our time. The painting pallet of denotation and connotation has gone back to just the primary colors. No need to learn how to mix colors to create shades. F*** you and other grunts and farts have replaced real discussions about war and peace.”

Amen to that.

Linda Mangelsdorf had a strong argument on another of the top 10 list:

“Hey, Bob, as long as you are counting 2 for one, why not make it 3 and give Rosalind Franklin the credit she deserves for the discovery of DNA? Today most sources do acknowledge her somewhere in their articles (the quote below is from waaaaaaay down in a Wikipedia story), but at the time of the Nobel, she was already dead from cancer – work-related, no doubt, and therefore ineligible for recognition. Just a thought …

“From Wikipedia: ‘… Their mistake was partly based on Watson having misrembered a talk by Rosalind Franklin where she reported that she had established the water content of DNA by using X-ray crystallographic methods. But Watson did not take notes, and remembered the numbers incorrectly. Instead, it was Franklin’s famous ‘photograph 51’ that finally revealed the helical structure of DNA to Watson and Crick in 1953.’ ”

And finally, Kathy Garvey, who obviously had not seen my initial list, offered this: “Where, for heavens sake, are FDR, Benjamin Spock, Dorothy Day, Bill & Melinda Gates (counts as one), or for that matter Oprah Winfrey, who is as fine an example of stewardship of great wealth as I can think of. Oops! I ended with a preposition; Winston would not be happy.”

Actually, Kathy, Winston would be thrilled since it was that rule up with which he would not put. And actually, Bill (but not Melinda) Gates is on my list of possibles, as is Dorothy Day. I hesitated on Spock and FDR and eventually left them off. Oprah is a force to be reckoned with, but I’m not sure how much she has influenced others in dealing with wealth. No one else is giving away cars.

One other suggestion was offered, by Roseanne Sullivan: “I finally thought of a “thinker” for you and whether you agree or not, you should really read what she’s got to say.  Name — Diane Ravitch: Discovery – NCLB and Charter Schools ain’t all that!!  Diane Ravitch was a strong supporter of No Child Left Behind when it was first introduced into the political educational realm. Recently, she’s had a reawakening.  You can read about her experience and her thoughts on the subject in an article she wrote titled “Stop the Madness” in the Aug/Sept. issue of NEA Today. She’s an expert on education and thought of as a key historian on NCLB issues. I agree with everything she says in this article  and its about time somebody said it in layman’s terms.”

I second the applause for her reawakening on NCLB and her insights on education, but I fear the influence barometer doesn’t measure up.

So here’s the upshot — Rosalind Franklin is in the top 10 with Watson and Crick with an asterisk for now, awaiting final judgment. That would make her the only woman in the first 10. Here ae the remainders from my original list of 29: Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky, Carl Jung, Jean Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud, T.S. Eliot, George Carlin, Albert Camus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rachel Carson, John Dewey, Bill Wilson, Dorothy Day, Bill Gates, Thomas Watson, Sam Walton, George Orwell, Margaret Sanger, Khalil Gibran, Philo Farnsworth, Betty Friedan and Isaac Asimov.

And here are other names suggested: Billie Holiday, The Beatles, Ken Wilbur, Vivekananda, Bob Dylan, Thomas Merton, Groucho Marx, Clarence Darrow, John Ford, Ted Williams, Al Gore, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Jon Stewart.

I’m thinking Rachel Carson and Philo Farnsworth have to be in there, but this is already way too long. Until next time then.

bob@zestoforange.com

By Michael Kaufman

Is it just me or is this the craziest election season ever? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I think about it. It was bad enough when we had a choice between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Now it’s a choice between Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Worse.  But I am clear about who I will be voting for on November 2 and I think it is not too late to mount an all-out campaign for my candidates.

People have been saying that we need to match the Tea Party crowd in enthusiasm so I’ve come up with some campaign slogans to get the ball rolling:

For any Democratic candidate running anywhere in the country:  “I’m Not a Witch. I’m the Lesser Evil.”

For Andrew Cuomo: “So What If He Took Jonah Mandelbaum’s Dough! At Least He’s Not Carl Paladino!”

For John Hall: “He Spoke for Peace and Voted for War but Nan Hayworth Would Be Worse for Sure!”

But we need more than those if we are going to give the Tea Party a run for their money. People are justifiably angry that their health insurance costs have gone up since the passage of the healthcare reform bill. We need a catchy slogan to convey the message that they would have gone up even more if there had been no reform. I couldn’t think of any. Can you?

If you can think of some catchy campaign slogans on this or any other issue, leave a comment below or send an email and we’ll share it with our readers.

One thing that has intrigued me so far in this campaign is the loud criticism meted out to Representatives John Hall and Maurice Hinchey for obtaining money from the federal government for local projects. Isn’t that a good thing? 

We pay taxes to the federal government, why shouldn’t we get money for local projects? Why is that derided as “pork”? I prefer to think of it as a nice brisket or maybe potato kugel or kasha varnishkes. Come to think of it, I’ll bet you’d never hear anyone say, “Let’s put an end to kasha varnishkes once and for all!” In any case I would much rather see my tax dollars go towards community projects than things like military occupations of countries on the other side of the world that pose no threat to us.

It just seems like it would be against our interests to support candidates who pledge to bring NO money in for community projects because they are against so-called pork. It’s like asking senior citizens to vote for candidates who would “reform” Social Security by privatizing it, raising the retirement age, and/or killing it altogether. The same goes for Medicare. No senior in their right mind would do that.  Or would they? Like I said, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

FROM THE VIRTUAL MAILBAG—Regarding last week’s post wherein I expressed regret for not speaking up when an obnoxious person made bigoted remarks, GENE KAUFMAN (brother of me) wrote: “Dumb(bleep)  bigots will be dumb(bleep)bigots all their lives. Common sense, reasoning,challenges of ‘what if it were you’ and ‘put yourself in someone else’s place,’ even anger and outrage won’t change them, although they might be more discreet about where they sound off.  A response might make you feel better, but then afterward you also go through the  “I shoulda said” phase, wishing you had been more devastating, finding words that  would turn her into a pile of dust.  In the end dumb(bleep) bigots are still dumb(bleep) bigots who can’t help themselves.  People stink. The goal is to be with the people who don’t.” Thanks, bro, but I still think I should have spoken up.

TOM KARLSON agrees with me.  “Yeah. The tell off is the way to go.” Tom also sent a scathing Columbus Day poem that I’ll save for next year.

Reader DEAN of Queens (first to notify us of the death of Billy Loes in July) wrote:   “My family grew up with Billy back in Astoria, Queens. Since he was an only child, and had no family at the time of his death, my wife and I were among the first to be notified here in Queens by a public fiduciary in Arizona, where he resided until he passed….Finally after two weeks, they settled; his body was cremated and sent back to NY. The NY Times was notified thereafter. May he rest in peace…enjoy the memories!

MARCO RIBEIRO left this comment below the posting at the Zest site:  “My first wife’s aunt married Billy Loes, and so I got to know him. I grew up in Maryland, so I was an avid Baltimore Orioles fan, and was thrilled that I actually got to know a former Oriole. Of course, Billy was much more famous as a Brooklyn Dodger. What I can say about Billy is that he was very modest and had a great sense of humor. He was full of funny stories. Here’s one: Billy told me that he was pitching one game where there was a very attractive lady fan wearing a short skirt sitting at the railing right near first base. She kept crossing and uncrossing her legs. The first baseman was distracted by her antics, and when Billy made a good throw to the first baseman to hold the runner, the ball flew right past the first baseman because he was staring at the foxy lady instead of paying attention to the game. The runner advanced to second base, and a minute later the official scorer’s decision flashed up on the scoreboard:  Error 1 (meaning the error was charged to the pitcher and not the first baseman). Billy shook his head and yelled up to the press box (where the official scorer sat), ‘What the hell? Are you staring at her too?!’ Billy always said some of the quotes attributed to him were not true….that he was not into bad mouthing anyone…Billy gave me a ‘Salute to the 1985 LA Dodgers’ Lite Beer mug, and I still treasure it. He was a great guy.” Thanks, Marco. As Dean said, enjoy the memories. 

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Shawn Dell Joyce

Bicycling is the lowest-carbon-producing form of transportation (along with walking) that gives you exercise and a great view at the same time. Many larger cities are actively encouraging cycling as it helps alleviate traffic congestion, and increase foot traffic in downtowns. Benefits of promoting cycling in cities include improving over health and well-being of residents, as well as the local economy.

This Thursday, the Orange County Transportation Council is hosting an “Open House” to discuss a bicycling “Master Plan” for our community. The open house is from 4:30-8:30 with presentations at 4:30, 5:30 and 7pm, at the Village of Montgomery Senior Center on Bridge Street. The Orange County Planning Department is updating the master plan is open to your input on ways to encourage non-motorized vehicle use. This is part of an effort to make our region more bicycle friendly.

What makes a community “bicycle friendly” according the League of American Bicyclists who rate bicycle friendly communities, aer what they call the “Five E’s.” These are Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation & Planning. A community must demonstrate achievements in each of the five categories in order to be considered for an award. Communities with more significant achievements in these areas receive superior awards.

—– For Engineering, a community needs to design a “bicycle master plan” to a accommodate cyclists on public roads, using well-designed bike lanes and multi-use paths. The community has bike racks for secure bike parking .

—– Education includes teaching cyclists of all ages how to ride safely in any area for multi-use paths to congested city streets as well as teaching motorists how to share the road safely with cyclists.

—– Encouragement means a community promotes and encourages bicycling through events like “Bike Month” and “Bike to Work Week” events as well as producing community bike maps, route finding signage, community bike rides, commuter incentive programs, and having a “Safe Routes to School” program.

—– Enforcing laws that encourage safer cycling and road-sharing helps create a safer bicycling environment in the community.

—– Evaluation and planning is simply determining ways to make cycling safer, and setting benchmarks to gauge success. Here the community is judged on the systems that they have in place to evaluate current programs and plan for the future.

Many communities around the country have encouraged bicycling by creating bike lanes on existing roads, bicycle racks in village downtowns, and incorporated bicycle safety programs into driver’s ed classes and schools. Some have gone a little farther, and set up “safe routes” for children to ride bicycles to school, thus eliminating the need for school buses and lowering school taxes. Others have encouraged cycling with “Bike to Work” week, and printing maps showing safe bicycling routes on and off roads.

As more and more local residents are parking their cars and putting on their bike helmets, it’s time for munipalities to create safer shared roads and encourage bicycling.

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. shawn@zestoforange.com

By Jeffrey Page

Not since the last time a defendant in a rape case said the woman’s sexy outfit meant she was “asking for it” have we encountered a more grotesque defense and sentencing than that of an ex-cop charged with drunken driving and killing a woman with his SUV.

A judge in Brooklyn ruled last week that because the woman, leaving a wedding reception in Mill Basin 13 months ago also was drunk, she contributed to her being struck by Andrew Kelly, the drunk off-duty NYPD officer. Kelly refused to take a breath test until seven hours after the incident and only then under orders. And just months later, as part of a deal, he pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated, and admitted that he had been drunk at the time he plowed into Vionique Valnord-Kassime. He also resigned from the police department.

Ms. Valnord-Kassime is dead and state Supreme Court Justice Allan Marrus sent Kelly to jail for 90 days and put him on probation for five years. You read that right.

The judge, prosecutor and the attorney representing Andrew Kelly seemed able to find a way to pin the rap of Ms. Valnord-Kassime’s death on Ms. Valnord-Kassime herself.

The assistant district attorney said, “She had been at a wedding. She had been drinking.”

Kelly’s lawyer said, “It appears that she was drunk and she wandered into traffic.”

Acknowledging that his sentence might strike some people as on the lenient side, the learned Judge Marrus was quoted by The New York Times noting that “the alcohol consumption of the victim [and] the fact that she walked out onto a rainy street to hail a cab against the advice of friends” could have been contributory factors to her being hit.

What Marrus did was to find Ms. Valnord-Kassime guilty of a crime that does not exist – WWI, or walking while intoxicated.

Translation: It was all her fault.

Anybody want to tell me about justice?

Only Sanford Rubenstein, the lawyer representing Ms. Valnord-Kassime’s family, observed that she was the sole victim in this case, no matter that she herself had had too much to drink.

Ninety days? Ninety days for driving drunk and killing someone is more like an annoying inconvenience than a serious penalty, and the question must be asked. What would the sentence have been had Andrew Kelly not been a cop at the time of Ms. Valnord-Kassime’s death? If Andrew Kelly were just another working stiff trying to make it in this economy, would he have been sent away for three months?

We’re supposed to respect the law and the people who enforce it and those who run our courts. And we are supposed to understand the random danger of drunken driving. But Marrus’s sentencing of the disgraced Andrew Kelly was an absurdity that flies in the face of common sense and sends a terrible message that maybe killing someone while you’re blind drunk isn’t such a terrible thing after all.

At the time of the sentencing, Ms. Valnord-Kassime’s father, the Rev. Varius Valnord, the pastor of the Haitian Church of God in Brooklyn, came face to face with Andrew Kelly in the courthouse. Kelly apologized. The Rev. Valnord accepted. But 90 days?

Clearly, Rev. Valnord is a forgiving man of God though he intends to bring a wrongful death action against Kelly and the city. Forgiveness is a wonderful – and personal – step. But one thing must be understood. The case against Andrew Kelly was not brought in the name of the Valnord and Kassime families. It was brought in the name of all 14 million people of the state of New York. We all need protection from drunken drivers.

The rest of us must demand representation in cases such as this since the next time someone is run down by a drunken driver – cop or civilian – the victim could be your kid, your sweetheart, your friend.

Because one thing about drunken drivers. They’re not very discriminating; they’ll kill anybody in their path.

Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com.

Little Italy

By Carrie Jacobson

Everyone is busy, busy, busy! So I’ve come up with some ways to save time and energy.

1. Make insomnia your friend. If you wake up in the middle of the night, forget about going back to sleep. Just start working.

2. Sleep in your clothes. If you’re not married, or if you don’t really care, keep your shoes on, too.

3. Eat soft food. Cutting stuff up takes time!

4. Don’t listen to the radio. It takes too much psychic energy!

5. Never answer the phone for anything but a true emergency. Return calls only when you know the person won’t be there, and leave a message on voice mail.

6. Wear nothing with buttons or zippers. Pull on, pull off.

7. If you’re really pressed for time, shave your head. Imagine the hours you’ll save in the shower before your hair grows back!

This 4-inch by 4-inch painting is sold, but I have other miniatures (fast to paint!). To see more, check my blog, carriejacobson.blogspot.com

Rusty Refrigerator

I was in Cape Breton Island this summer, painting with a friend, when we encountered these cows on a breathtakingly beautiful road near Mabou.

We visited (thankfully briefly) with the man who owned them. On the rusty door of his rusty refrigerator, in his disturbingly unkempt home, were photos of crop circles he’d mowed into this very field, and thus the incongruent name of the painting.

It’s 30 by 40, and is thick with paint and surface texture. If you’re interested in hearing details of price and shipping or delivery, please send me an email at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com

By Michael Kaufman

Last weekend my daughter Gahlia and I went to an audition at the Newburgh Actors Studio. The waiting room was full of people of all ages, each hoping to land a spot as an extra in a movie being filmed in the area. Gahlia recognized an older woman who had appeared in a community theater production of Mame at her high school, The Storm King School in Cornwall. Then Gahlia made a big mistake.

She said hello.

The woman took Gahlia’s greeting as an opportunity to engage in a loud, flamboyant, and boastful rant that began with her family ties to Storm King (she said her family founded the place) and ended with a disgusting anti-Semitic joke. In between she offered views on everything from “women’s lib” to affirmative action. “I was against women’s lib,” she announced. “Equal pay for equal work is fine but I don’t want some four-foot little girl coming to my house to rescue me from a fire.” Neither did she want any non-white firefighters who only got into the fire department because the entrance exam had been “dumbed down.” Several people murmured their agreement.

And then she told of a recent encounter with a Hasidic Jew who she said was soliciting funds “for some charity of theirs.” She said the man was wearing a big diamond ring so he was “obviously not in any need of funds.” She said she told the man she would not give him a penny, after which he invoked the Holocaust in an attempt to enlist her sympathy.  But she wasn’t buying it.

“Can you imagine? I mean, it’s been 60 years….Get over it already!”
My brain was still reeling from this remark when she said the man told her, “You WASPs don’t understand….” At this point I decided she was making the story up, which is most likely the case as it was the perfect setup for the nasty little joke that followed.

“I told him, ‘What do you mean I don’t understand. My uncle died at Auschwitz.’”

“Your uncle was Jewish?”

“No! He fell out of a guard tower.” That got a few laughs, although the main reaction was uncomfortable silence, including my own.

I had wanted to object to her comments several times during her spiel but I kept quiet because I didn’t want to make a scene that might jeopardize Gahlia’s and my chances of getting parts in the movie. In hindsight I was wrong.  I should have told her that her joke wasn’t funny. I should have asked her how she would feel if half the world population of WASPs had been placed in concentration camps, beaten, starved, worked or gassed to death, maybe people in her own family…. and  some ignorant blowhard said to her, “It’s been 60 years….Get over it already!” I’m sorry I didn’t.

The good news is that Gahlia and I both made the cut and may end up being seen, albeit for just a few seconds, in Return, starring Linda Cardellini, Michael Shannon and Tim Blake Nelson. Cardellini plays a woman who returns home from war to her husband (portrayed by Shannon) and kids in a small town and struggles to readjust. Nelson plays an older war vet who befriends her. The movie is written and directed by Liza Johnson, a former fellow at the Sundance Institute. Meredith Vieira, television reporter and host, is executive producer.

The audition was my first visit to the Newburgh Actors Studio (“A Little Taste of Manhattan in the Hudson Valley”), which presents live theater offerings at 784 Broadway, Newburgh. The place is indeed reminiscent of the Manhattan theater scene and is well worth a visit. The current offering is I’m Not Rappaport by Herb Gardiner.  At this writing remaining performances are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, October 8 – 9 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, October 10 at 5 p.m. Tickets are $20 ($18 for students and seniors). For information or reservations, call 845-569-8593.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

By Jeffrey Page

Tuesday is the 12th anniversary of an American crucifixion. It was on Oct. 12 in 1998 when two young men in southeastern Wyoming got hold of a third man outside a bar in Laramie, beat him to a bloody pulp, and then took him out to a ranch where they tied him to a fence and left him in cold weather for about 18 hours. Finally someone spotted him and called for help.

It took Matthew Shepard four days to die. At the time, it was reported that the reason for the attack was that Shepard, a gay 22-year old student at the University of Wyoming, had made a pass at one of the men.

In some insane code, Shepard had to pay for this with his life. Of course, if everybody who ever made a pass – gay or straight – was treated like this, there would be no vacant spaces along the fences of America. After they tied Shepard up, their honor ostensibly upheld, his two assailants drove back to Laramie, where they attacked two Hispanic men.

For killing Matthew Shepard, Russell A. Henderson, 21, and Aaron J. McKinney, 22, were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Recently, I’ve been reminded of Shepard’s fate when I read about the equally unspeakable death of Tyler Clementi in New Jersey. In Clementi’s case, there was no direct physical assault. Instead, prosecutors say, two other students at Rutgers University set the wheels in motion for Tyler’s suicide.

No one has been convicted of anything. Indeed, no one’s even been indicted yet. So for now, responsible news organizations must stick with “allegedly” and “police said” and “prosecutors charged.” But what can never be called into question is the fact that Tyler Clementi was gay-bashed to death without anyone laying a finger on him.

Someone tore away any defenses that Clementi may have set up for himself by secretly webcasting his gay sexual encounter with another Rutgers student and putting it up on the Internet for all the world to see. A few days later, Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge.

Authorities charged Clementi’s roommate, Dhuran Ravi, and another student, Molly Wei, with invasion of Clementi’s privacy. That alone could get them five years in prison. Additional charges are possible. For example, if prosecutors pursue the case as a bias crime, the maximum penalty could go to 10 years.

As usual in cases like these, people are left with the question that seems as though it never will be satisfactorily answered. What is the fear that drives men such as Henderson and McKinney to do what they did to Matthew Shepard? That some gay guy is going to make off with them? That’s absurd in general; all they have to do is say no. It’s especially ridiculous in Shepard’s case since he was all of 5 feet 2, not exactly a physical threat. The other question is whether they might have had doubts about their heterosexuality and had to come to grips with that as a result of an encounter with a gay man.

Through their lawyers, Ravi and Wei have said that they did not hold Clementi’s homosexuality against him. Then, what could possibly have been their motivation for allegedly posting Tyler Clementi’s tryst on the Internet? They didn’t address that.

The death of Tyler Clementi informs us that the outrages are far from over. Anyone who was aware of Matthew Shepard’s death in 1998 likely hoped that such an atrocity could not happen again. But it did and we are left with yet another question: How many more young men must pay with their lives for the crime of being who they are?

Jeffrey can be reached at jeffrey@zestoforange.com.