Dear Editor:
Tonight I was at the memorial service, in front of city hall, for the victims of the Orlando massacre. There was a reading of the names and it was truly heartbreaking to hear the names and ages of the innocents who were slaughtered.
Yet the name that came to me was Matthew Shepard, a gay young man who was brutally tortured and killed in 1998 because he was gay. Another incident came to mind and while I recalled the details, I could not remember his name which is James Boyd Jr. He was chained and dragged along a back road in Jasper, Texas also in 1998 by white supremacists.
You can find the details on line but the message is the same, “Hate Kills while Love Saves and Protects.” My personal belief is that God, however you define him or her, has no religion. Religion is manmade.
So please live your life as best as you can and do not impose your version of what is right and acceptable on the rest of humanity. If your God, whoever that is for you, is infallible, there are no mistakes. Then why are there so many who do not fit into your limited definition of what or who is the “Norm”?
As a mother, I have tremendous empathy for the mothers who lost their sons and daughters. I cannot imagine getting that call. Whoever your God is, he or she would never condone this brutality.
So just stop and let go of all those false and negative beliefs. The world is a gift to all. “Let go and let God”.
Hopefully.
Rose Orozco