Last week and the Laramie project

        This past week we got a really good introduction to the Laramie Project and began reading and analyzing the book. Really focused on the culture of Laramie and the community and the impact the media had on this story. All the support from both the media and the community really allowed Matthew Shepard's story to get out into the public and receive the support it did. Although at times the media could of been a lot much for the Shepard family to handle at the time they did a great job of using Matthew's story to make sure something like this doesn't happen again and thats special. When it comes to the community most would say Laramie was really just a dot on the map and thats it. After Matthew's story Laramie became a town everybody's heard of in the U.S and that says something about the community of Laramie. Most people in Laramie work minimum wage jobs and dont live anything like the life of people living in the cities. It's a farm town that up until Matthew's story was left alone and had never received any media attention. The culture and the community changed quickly after the murder and the people of Laramie had to adapt. Being known by most people in the country as the place where that kid was murdered was not what the people of Laramie wanted at all. Instead they came together and brought awareness and support to Matthew's murder and thats something the people of Laramie can be proud of.

          We also began forming our opinions on whether or not we think Matthew's murder was a hate crime or something else. So far there has been a lot of evidence from Stephen Jimenez and his book The book Of Matt that Matthew's murder could of been something else beside a hate crime for him being gay. That possibly it was a drug deal gone wrong and Aaron Mckinney was under a meth induced rage and was really a ticking time bomb. It can't be a robbery because you dont do something to someone like Aaron Mckinney did to Matthew Shepard only for some shoes and a wallet. According to Jimenez Matthew and Mckinney knew each other and had been in business with drugs and could of led to the whole confrontation. If it wasn't a hate crime it had to of been drug related and there's quite a bit of evidence to prove that. Learning more about Mckinney and his accomplice Russel Henderson will help form my opinion because its still unsure. There's so many theories and stories that come with Matthew's story and that;s why this incident is so intriguing to everyone. Its still unsure to a lot of people as in what actually happened and thats fascinating because this story needs a conclusion. Everyone has there own opinion and thats another thing that is so interesting about this story because everybody has different views. It's just good to know Matthew's story didn't go un-noticed and got the support it did.