As a car just drove on by...

By the time you've watched the video below, you will know what my title refers to.

Tonight I celebrate the one month countdown until I fly to Toronto to legally wed my partner (NOT our wedding, the wedding is for spring 2012). I also bring back a bad memory. For a while I was following the story of the severe beating of Jack Price in New York back in 2009 just out of curiosity as to what the verdict would be. Today, the verdict got handed down.

Daniel Rodriguez will serve 12 years in prison for beating a man he didn't even know SO badly, that he suffered a broken jaw, collapsed lungs, broken ribs, lost half of his hearing, and lost his peripheral vision. The police report also says that had the EMT's arrived 5-10 minutes later, he mostly likely would have been dead from blood hemorrhaging.



Daniel Aleman, the second Bad Daniel, was sentenced to 8 years for his role in the beating.

Tonight, my blog is a message to them:

Daniels, this world is filled with people who you might not understand... or like... or appreciate... or accept. And I am sure that if you tried to beat up everyone you disliked, you would get the death penalty over a dozen years behind bars. I will admit, there are certainly people in this world that I despise, and yes at times would LOVE to beat up in the street. But I don't. Because as modernistic as my views may be, I still hold the ancient creed: Thou shall not attack until thou hast been attacked.

NEVER, for one minute, of one second, of one day, did this innocent man, who's life is forever worsened, affect your life. He was going about his business, on his own, and just hoping to get from A to B and enjoy the day.

Many people, in fact MOST in my life, don't know this, but I was once in this situation. Junior year of college, coming out of the Pegasus Club in Pittsburgh, where we were approached by a gang and the friend I was with was beaten Unconscious. Had the police not been down the block, who knows where I'd be today?

Now my biggest criticism of gay marriage has always been... "how does MY personal life affect YOURS?" i.e. how does what I do on a daily basis... affect YOUR... so called daily basis? It's not enough that we get treated like slaves in the 1800's without you resorting to the beating.

So, Daniel, and Daniel, i will leave it at this. my HOPE, my prayer, is that in 12 years, when you are released from prison, you will walk out of those large steel doors, see the sun shining in your face, and see a world that changed while you were behind bars. You will walk out to a world that embraces every person and every family, and your true redemption will come the day you realized... you were just a decade behind the masses.