Boy on the Fence
© 2010
Dan Johnson

In October of 1998, Matthew Shepherd, a young college student from Laramie, Wyoming met two young men in a bar, and they left in an old pick-up truck which would take them out to a desolate spot along the darkened highway following a fence line, where Matthew was beaten and left bloody, bruised and broken. He was not found until the next day, as the young boy who found him said... "He looked like a dead animal, caught, and strung out on this fence." Matthew died a short time later, but in the process, a group was formed called the Laramie Project which was commissioned to travel from New York City to Laramie... to meet the townspeople, and they discovered, it would take more than one trip to Laramie to unravel the attitudes of its inhabitants.  Thanks to Matthew's mother, Judy, Hate Crime Legislation was passed in 2009, and is on the books everywhere in this country, protecting the rights of citizens that might become victims of hate and violence.

Out on that Wyoming highway
There he hung on an old barbed fence

Two young men with anger in their hearts,
Destroyed a life, the crime it made no sense.

Some of the townspeople were deeply saddened,
    But many were maddened by the atrocity of this crime

The righteous said “God” was punishing Matthew for stepping over the line.
    The real crime, taking a life, with no regard for human kind… this is just so wrong.

Do we ever stop to think that the lessons we teach children,
    are the lessons they will take with them for the rest of their lives.

If we teach our young, wise virtues of love, honor, respect and truth,
    That is exactly what they will do in return.

If we teach our young hate, vengeance and violence,
    That is exactly what they will do in return.


Matthew Shephard a young college student from Laramie, Wyoming
Was left alone, broken and bloody, along that fence, on a chilly night,  to die, only because he was gay.