Michael Bates's MySpace Blog | Gay Angst is Back With A Vengeance

Michael Bates's MySpace Blog | Gay Angst is Back With A Vengeance: "The death of Tyler Clemente has left a hole somewhere in me where there was hope that homophobia was on the decline. I watched as the news reports also told of 5 other teen suicides due to bullying within a 2 week period. I don't know where to begin to express how I feel.

I am angry how a school system has failed to step in due to repercussions from parents or greedy lawyers. When have children mattered so little to us. Have we become so distant that a cry for help is ignored and considered a nuisance or teachers just don't want to deal with paperwork or parents.

I still cry at the thought of a lonely teen walking along the George Washington Bridge pedestrian walkway on a beautiful fall evening. The wind whipping at his reddish locks of hair and he stops and gently takes his wallet and places his ID on the top with some other items and stops maybe to wipe some tears as he looks back at the Jersey side and mostly thinking of family he climbs the rail and the air now whips a little more furiously as if it wants him to reconsider this final decision. It is a beautiful night as an angel leaps into the sky and no one can hear as that fateful splash falls among deaf ears.

Just a few miles away his tormentors and his friends are laughing at the 'prank' and edging each other on to show the recorded media to others as they come in. A group of students laughing at the expense of others. A fallen and broken angel drifts the Hudson forever waiting for those concerned words that would of kept him off that walkway.

Halfway across the country in the deep Southwest a week or two before Asher Brown a sweet 13 year old with all the gifts life has to offer waiting for him; Asher comes home from school and tormented for the past 2 years he can no longer take the bullying.

A few hours later his parents come home to the angel's broken body as his life's blood comes seeping from a wound that is a testament to the effects of bullying. A 13 year old made such a decision that not only rocked the small community by reverberated through the country like the ride of Paul Revere .

Tears shed for these fallen stars who could have been our next Itzhak Perlman or a Van Gogh . Why do we let our children down and why do their cries go unheard in the educational system. Their deaths should not be ignored and this should reverberate all the way to Capitol Hill.

To my fallen children I wish I could take back time and had someone there to hear your pleas and a shoulder to lean on as life got harder. My tears still flow for you and will for quite some time. We live in a democracy that will probably let the tormentors walk away free . My fallen ones you should know your pleas have been heard albeit late but it is a cry to those afraid to enter a school hallway or college dorm that they are not alone.

Tyler and Asher you are in a much safer place where you are surrounded by love from other fallen angels and our here in our hearts so we do not forget that words can snuff out a promising life. You shall be missed.

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