THIS PAGE CONTAINS comments that
I have received from readers. If you have any feedback you'd like to add, just follow the instructions near the
bottom.
Hi, Jim. Your Web site is beautiful. Congratulations on a great job.
I'm not a Christian, but I'm really glad you included so many references to Christian faith, since that's the faith of Matthew and his parents, and in hopes that it will counterbalance some of the poison coming from some so-called Christians.
Thanks again for doing this. It's a wonderful, healing site.
K. D. R.
Jim,
Impressive site . . . you did a great job! I think Matt would have felt extremely honored!
R. W.
Congratulations, Jim.
A well-done site, both from the technical and content standpoints. I particularly like the way you did it all from your own personal viewpoint rather than impersonal, as many similar sites are done.
Also, you have brought to mind a poem I have been considering for some time which concerns the effect this crime had and still has upon the world. If I complete it, I will forward to you.
I am proud to add your site to the Matthew Shepard Historical Archives and await further developments.
Well done!
e. l. m. w.
Dear Jim,
I did want to thank you for all you have done to honor Matthew's memory. Well done.
R. S.
Jim,
I just finished viewing your site. You'll find no negatives from me. In fact, it is very tastefully done. It actually stirred some of the sorrow I felt in the days following Matthew's passing.
R. H.
Hi,
I live in Philadelphia, and I came across Matthew's Web page. I just want his family and friends to know that I will be praying for them all the time.
N.
[I received the following note from the brother of Ed Van, whose Web site, Evan's Island, with its own memorial tribute to Matt, gave me the extra emotional push I needed to finish my site and publish it on the Web. On the Internet, Ed was and is known as "Evan." His family continues to maintain his site for him.]
Thank you for your kind words about my brother. Knowing the kind of person Ed was, it never surprises me when someone comes forward and tells about how Ed has touched their life. If he was still with us, I know that he would have the first comment in your feedback. His beliefs were strong and truly sincere. What you saw was what you got. Fifty years was not long enough with him. Even though gone, he still touches me every day. I believe that he is still touching others.
Thanks again for your tribute. Great site I passed it on to the rest of the family members. Brother
The site, from what I've seen, is FANTASTIC. I can't imagine the amount of work that went into it. Great job!
P. K.
Thanks for the Web site. I bookmarked it. It looks good I like the essays and poems especially.
M. H. S.
[I received the next note a few hours after the January 21, 2003, premiere of Alopex's tribute to Matt, What Matthew Shepard Means to Me. See the link below for full-page essays.]
That was such a beautiful Web site! Thank you for posting that. It's nice to see a genuinely good person in the world. Thanks.
S.
Your site is so gently comforting and welcoming. I have registered with other sites in memory of Matthew, and yours is one that captures my feelings, anguish, and faith in one place. Thank you. It is truly a work of love.
C. C.
I want to thank you for the site of Matthew. It is bittersweet, which is the feeling I always have connected to him. It must be painful to put together but valuable to us all.
I hold Matthew in my heart, and I felt this was so close to that whole wretched situation.
Believe me, I am sincerely your friend.
T. C.
It just breaks my heart to read of Matt.
I am gay and 57 and have more than paid my dues. I used to live and teach in Casper during the oil boom of the late 70s and early 80s and found it very intolerant of gays in general back then, so I left; but I knew many, many gays, and what they had to put up with just to make a living still makes me sad.
Love will conquer all. I pray that Matt will serve as an icon of the victim of intolerance and change a few hearts even if just one.
A beautiful tribute to Matt very touching and inspirational.
M. V.
The following is a compilation of feedback that I have culled from several e-mails I received from this dear reader. He made the initial contact on December 6, 2004, and we had several very good, meaningful e-mail exchanges during the next week.
Dear Jim:
I want to thank you for your Web site paying tribute to the memory of Matthew Shepard. It brought me to tears. It exemplified to me what it means to be in touch with the Spirit of God to be "in spirit" or "inspired."
I am a gay man living with HIV. I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian tradition and nearly went into ministry after going to seminary for several years. Despite going through almost a decade of actively trying to change the sexual orientation of others as well as myself, it did not work for me or those I ministered to. In fact, the conflict I felt internally about being gay and Christian almost destroyed me.
It seems, in these times, that there is so much mean-spiritedness being perpetrated in the name of Jesus Christ, of Christianity, of God, and of religion in general. To borrow New Testament terminology, this is what I would consider to be "anathema" and, in fact, "anti-Christ." People who are professing to be the epitome of God's love are preaching hate and encouraging the destruction of others with whom they disagree.
What many professed Christians do not seem or perhaps care to realize is that when people say that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons are not loved and accepted by God, these well-intentioned believers open the doors for young people who are precious to God to harm or kill themselves as well as to be hated and murdered.
How this saddens me. How much more must it grieve God.
Sadly, this chapter is far from over in our history as a country. Moreover, I believe that many in this nation are in for a rude awakening someday when they come face to face with their Creator. After all, does not the Bible talk very pointedly in Jesus parable of the sheep and the goats, Matthew 25:3146, about how God will judge well-intentioned "believers" for how they treated "the least of these" brothers and sisters of Christ?
It is my hope that those who are listening to the Spirit of God, whatever their beliefs or traditions, will rise to the call to proclaim God's love and acceptance of all people and remember that Jesus said, "If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone . . ." (John 8:7, New International Version).
The last thing I would want to do in these times following the [ABC November 26, 2004] 20/20 program [with host Elizabeth Vargas interviewing Matt's assailants, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney] is cause further grief to the Shepard family. On the other hand, what I say, along with many others who can speak more eloquently and more sensitively, may help them find strength to face such an attack.
I have a friend who was honored to meet and spend time with Judy Shepard several years ago. He was transformed by the experience. These are strong people. Nevertheless, they do not need to bear more than they already have upon their shoulders.
There are so many beautiful people in the world, including wonderful Christians who walk the talk, as I sense you and many contributors to your site do. It is so refreshing to see a site like yours that affirms the value of all people before God.
Thank you again for your love, compassion, and dedication to truth, justice, and the true person of Christ. Know that you and your contributors are in my thoughts and my prayers. I am grateful for your response [to my earlier e-mail messages]. I will be sure to refer people on to your wonderful Web site as a beacon of hope.
Yours in Christ,
R. S. H.
I'M HAPPY TO HEAR FROM YOU. You may e-mail your comments just follow the link below. Please keep in mind the tone and purpose of the site, as touched on in the first paragraph of the Foreword section of the memorial page.
I will add your comments to this page and will then reply to you personally so that you'll know they're posted. I will use just your initials, unless there's another way you'd prefer to have your name read. Thanks so much.
J. H.