I read this story over breakfast and could'nt finish eating. My heart aches for David Ritcheson, his family and for all of us.

...and they keep telling us its not a matter of race......i have to admit i had a trouble sleeping last night, after reading about this last night ... we have to stand up for our kids future and not let this keep happening... the nerve of those republicans who tried and will continue to try to block the federal anti-hate bill that David Ritcheson testified for.

Sick and cowardly.

May he rest in peace now. They tortured him, (a torture survivor said torture kills the person, the spirit/soul but leaves their body still walking around) he must of been in so much pain and that's when death is a better option.
I think hate crimes are similar to paedophilia (for example) in that they are an expression of a pathology, that's why they have to be treated differently because the propensity for them remains even after capture sentencing and incarceration unless the pathology is addressed. And legislation begins to also address the sickness in the wider culture too by sending the signal it is no longer ok to be a bigot.
Follow up -Spring teen's death spurs fight for hate-crimes bill
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4938920.html

This morning is the first time I have heard the name David Ritcheson. What a terrible tragedy this is, it makes me weep for David and his family.

Kellie,
Queensland, Australia.

Rest in peace, David Ritcheson. Presente!

WTF!!! This happened awhile back & yet I only hear of this now. This brutality needs to be put out there for all to see, yet instead it barely gets touched on, all the while Paris Hilton is pumped like heroin on the t.v. screen.
Poor kid was left so scarred that he jumped off a cruise ship to end the pain in his life.
This really saddens my heart.

Vaya con dios, David.

I posted about this morning at DKos and it was on the recommended list most of the day. We really need to get out and keep pounding about how this hatred that goes over the airwaves every night is toxic.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/2/111151/0946

Why the fuck would anyone do this??????

LULAC attorney Carlos Leon, who was also David Richeson's attorney, will be holding a press conference tomorrow in Houston (sorry, I'm much too far away to attend). Any small checks you can write to help the family defray costs should be to the:

Funeral Arrangements Account
Galvan Family Trust
Bank of America
ACCOUNT NUMBER 005864404494

Wishes of peace to David and his family. It's horrifying and ... *flails* There are no words in my vocabulary to describe the sadness and disgust I feel for what happened.

Fucking hell.

This story "was" put out there for everyone to know every horrible detail.Everyone that seen him knew he was "that kid".It was too much for him to carry.Pray for all the families,donate to help his family and most of all be kinder to others.This is what we are left with when we kick God out.Blessed are those who mourn,they will be comforted.Blessed is the nation who's god is the Lord.

The depravity of this world makes me heartsick. Events like this cause me to wonder if there is any hope for humanity, or if pulling up stakes, packing up my family and moving off the grid is a better solution. I hope David is at rest and free of pain.

summitt, if i reinterpret your word "God" as "love" or "humanity" or even "reason" i can fullly agree. but many who claim god as a close ally have done just as depraved things throughout history. no offense, but i need to make this clear when someone begins "preaching" as such. "thjis is what happens." i fully want you to voice your opinion and belief. but i also must keep it sane in here, even when we are decrying such evil. i mean we could also easily make a statement about the media on the point you make. but i agree. this is what happens when we lose touch with soemething very very important as a People. or just feed the hate and racism that forged this haunted land in the first place.

glad you'[re getting it out there on DK, mariachi mama. you are right, it needs to be shown to people what is going on.

--

jennifer, in the attack, they were kicking a large picnic table umbrella into his rectum screaming "white power." why? damn good question. can that one be answered, really? ever?

racism is again being normalized lately with the right wing noisemachine. and hell, this kind of hate, violence, dehumanization is how this nation was taken in the first place. these are but echoes, way i see it.

--

gennimcmahon, i think there is hope for humanity, but i do not think that hope will be realized. there is always hope, i think...as hope is not reliant on reasonable events or reliable facts or evidence. it is but a direction, i think. a force we must nurture despite the prevailing wind. BUT in the normal sense you mean it, i say no. and anyway, i dont rely on humanity for reason or example, or much in the way of anything dependable. i think humankind is headed down a hole. damn. look around, right? we havent learned anything, really, for all the grave mistakes/lessons made by humankind. we lie about them, glorify them, lather, rinse, repeat.

but that doesn't mean i have to go down that hole, dont have to be there for all of my short span in this place. to make a short answer long.

I heard about this story when it first happened over a year ago, it is disgusting that human beings can act this way to one another. When I finally heard the final outcome of his trial, I felt that it was not enough, that these two boys did not get what they truly deserved. I am a person who does not think the death penalty is all it is cracked up to be, but in certain cases such as this, I feel the death penalty is way too good for the fools who did this to him. 90 years to life is too good for them, what they should get is the exact same torture times ten, so that they can truly understand the pain they caused David.

I was truly saddened to see that David had passed away, and just how it happened, I believed that if he could survive such torment for the length of time that he did, I believed he was stronger than any of us. But now I see that, having to live that long with the humiliation of what has been done to you would be way too much to handle. I am at a loss for words, and it makes me angry that nothing is truly being done to stop such acts of violence. We are not in the times of the civil war, we are not in the 60's during the civil rights movement, we are suppose to be a generation that has moved past, race and gender hatred. We are a generation, that is suppose to be able to look at someone, whether he is black, white, brown, or yellow, and call them a friend, because we are all human beings, people, with beating hearts, and no matter what is on the outside, we all have emotions, feelings, we all deserve the same amount of respect and compassion no matter what color the skin is.

America boasts to have a higher standard of living, but really America is in paralysis, and soon our country is going to cease to exist unless our government can makes changes to ensure that the people living here, legally or illegally are protected and treated equally. I believe the government has created a stigma for the hispanic population that is only going to get worse with time. The Representatives in Congress or the Senate are more focused on holding onto their high paying jobs, rather than serving the American People like they vowed to do. Something needs to be done, before more acts of blatant violence become commonplace, before a country that was once united with common goals, and dreams, becomes a country that has lost its view of humanity and compassion, and it becomes a free for all. David Ritcheson, I hope you rest in peace, you were a better person than any of us.

well said, sarah.

i only wonder if the USA was ever truly "united with common goals, hopes, and dreams." i know that's the hype, but if you think about all the exploitation and manipulation and leverage on so many segments of society, you wonder how any span of people could be "united" when free will has hardly been involved on all parts.

and we must think larger. we must remember that for every diamond of "civilization" that the USA squeezes forth, many, many flames have been born in other places to provide this heat and pressure—to continue the analogy. the problem with the USAs rise to empire is that this relationship is ignored, when the cost of all the USA's comforts and advancements have come at the expense of human beings' happiness or wellbeing—be they within her own confines or around the world. and still, we go on with this relationship using "free trade" and "outsourcing" and all kinds of methods of cheating a balance that will, yet, come to take its due. we exploit and take advantage of relationships with other peoples, and yet continue to vilify them. This perverse philosophical aberration causes a lot of craziness in our peoples, and it manifests in events like this one.

we cannot be united when one part of our world is trying to exploit/intimidate/control the rest. and the blindness that arises from neverlearning this lesson and turning away from such an obvious truth makes us a mad, mad, mad nation. "higher standard of living"? At what cost? What is "higher"? One might include in "higher" a consideration of the costs of that standard, even ones kept out of sight or newspapers. In that framing, does the US really have a "higher standards of living"?

On the things you said about David, they were beautiful. I think he is a very strong person, and I do not condemn him for taking his life. The pain he must have suffered distorts my entire sense of wellbeing and wrings tears from me when I let the awareness or thought of it fill me. Which I feel is important to do now and again.

tho, summitt, i do understand why this image would encourage your comment or ones like it. not to confuse anyone. the iconic/religious/christian imagery in this picture was intended to inform its reception; the cross, the weeping face writ large.

a dynamic i've often commented on in other posts...i dont like to lay all this out in words. that's why i'm a visual artist at times writing cannot hope to outline those things i want to sketch on. but given many (okay, in the broad historical sense) latinos relationship with christian conquest, with absorbing the conqueror's religion, the central actor: jesus who was crucified for his enemy's fear and blindness and their own failings/sins; with latinos/hispanics/Brown™ fueling so much of the US's commerce engine and at the same time being hunted and hated, it all weaves together in my art and language sometimes when commenting on certain cases/shapes of behavior. I reference well-understood symbols/paradigms/narratives, tho I didn't intend it to be "up front," more of a felt thing.

gods. i haven't been checking many blogs in the past few and hadn't heard about this elsewhere.

my heart aches. wow. how... horrible.