Some of you may already be aware that last Tuesday, February 12, an 8th grader at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California was shot in the head by a classmate. The victim, Lawrence King, was declared braindead around 2 PM Wednesday afternoon. He was only 15. The suspected gunman, whose name has been withheld due to his age, was only 14.

But, this is nothing new to us, is it? I live in Los Angeles, sunny capitol of gang violence. Shootings happen all the time. Shouldn’t we, as citizens of the 21st century, be accustomed by now? Even school shootings should be passé to the cosmopolitan student. Kent State, Columbine, Virginia Tech… even Northern Illinois University, just this afternoon…5 dead. But something is different this time. The suspect in the Lawrence King case has been charged with murder in the first degree… with the added tag of “Hate Crime.” You see, Lawrence King was a self-determined gay student, and there has been speculation that his antics, which included wearing heeled boots, makeup, or painted nails on occasion, provided the motive for his assailant. King and the suspected gunman had been in previous altercations, and the school had offered counseling, but the bullying continued. While King’s carriage may have been “freaking the guys out”, as a classmate of his said, did it really warrant DEATH?

Ten years ago, a gay college student named Matthew Shepherd was tied to a fence and beaten to death. Were we naïve to think that sort of thing just didn’t happen anymore? Has it really been so long since the Civil Rights movement? Were we stupid to think that a person could be himself without running the risk of having a few rounds of hot lead driven into the soft spongy matter of his brain? Apparently so. We were stupid to think that bullying is harmless, and even MORE stupid to allow a 14-year-old to get hold of a gun. Prosecutors are pushing for the suspect to be tried as an adult, regardless of his age. Whether or not you support this objective, perhaps you can support a code of respect. We may not always agree with one another, but can’t we at least coexist? Not just in school, or wherever you are in life, but as members of the greater community, and the world at large.

I ask that you observe a moment of silence, for Lawrence King, and the countless others who have suffered under the choking grasp of bigotry, prejudice and unrelenting hatred.