Two teens & Ryan Cran attacked a gay man, in Stanley Park in 2001 and today, Mr. Cran gets released on Parole. He was convicted, in 2004, of manslaughter, as were the two teens, while one party to the crime, was acquited. The sentence for Cran was six years.

He was convicted of manslaughter in December 2004, along with two teens for the November 2001 attack.

Arron Webster was killed in an area of Stanley Park frequented by gay men when a gang of youths armed with baseball bats and a pool cue beat him and left him to die from a torn artery in his neck. ( source – CBC News )

A man has died, and in our society, it seems a life has different values attached to it. If it is manslaughter, you get one penalty, if it is murder, you get a different stiffer penalty. So what really is the difference between manslaughter and murder?

The victim is still dead, anyway you look at it.

From what I understand, Manslaughter is the unintentional death of another, during the commission of an assault, or such. Murder on the other hand, is the deliberate attempt to end the life of another human being.

On that basis, when people go armed with a baseball bat or any other weapon, to beat up someone, surely that is an intent to commit murder. Oh they may not think it will kill the person, though how striking someone in the head with a baseball bat is not going to have lethal consequences, is beyond me. Yet that is how it seems to work, and I wonder, how we, as a civilized nation, can accept such a pitiful excuse.

Have we perhaps become too used to violence, so that we lower the bar of justice, simply because it is easier to push aside, than to step up and try to solve why these type of attacks happen? I mean think about it, we are supposedly basing our laws on our religious beliefs. Thou Shalt Not Kill is the phrase, is it not?

So where in that Commandment, does it say that there are degrees, of killing? It strikes me as being so hypocritical, because all of the major religions preach that killing is bad, and yet more wars have been waged, because of Religion.

It is strange too, how Religion preaches tolerance, and yet who are the biggest opponents of allowing Gays to be full partners of society, by letting them serve openly in the Military, of letting them be who they are, in schools, parks, and work? AND NO,  to say society does do that, is not true, because if it was, there would be no need for discrimenation laws for sexual orientation.

There would be no need for hate crime laws, of any kind, if what the Priests, the Rabbis, the Immans, preach was how their Religion truly believes. I myself, don’t believe GOD wants us to kill each other, specially over how we believe in HIM, and yet even the POPE tries to foster the hatred against a minority, because he is protecting the faith? I mean really?

I BELIEVE IN GOD, JUST NOT THE ONE THE SO CALLED MAJORITY DO, AS MY GOD IS A LOVING GOD, NOT A HATEFUL GOD.

Ryan Cran is free after serving four years for killing Arron Webster, not because he tried to take anything from Mr. Cran, not because he even attacked him, but simply because he was gay. That was his ‘crime’ and so he paid the price for being different. It is a price many are being forced to pay, all because men in power, like the Pope, like Vic Toews, like Mike Duffy, have a thing about Gays.

They don’t kill Gays, by their own hands, but their outbursts, their derogatory references to Homosexuality, inspires others to do their dirty work. Mr. Cran swung the bat, along with his two teen friends, but it is the leaders, like Harper, Bush, Pope Benedict, who make homosexuality sound evil, who make it seem dirty, and a crime against GOD, who put that bat in his hands.

I don’t believe in Christ, and most Jews don’t, however do I attack him? Do I make fun of him, or treat him like he is some leper? NO, I respect that others believe differently than I do, and yet why isnt the same respect being offered to me, as a homosexual? Why do so many, say that Jesus Christ is sickened by me? Why do they say his Father objects to me living my life, as I choose, when HE was the one who gave me that right? Who actually made me who I am?

Aaron Webster is DEAD, does it really matter to his friends and family that under the law, there was no overt attempt to kill him? HE IS STILL DEAD.   Mr Cran lost four years of his life, fitting penalty for another who lost his entire life?

Only the second state in the Greatest Democracy Ever to make it legal for Gay Men & Woman to marry. In a 4 to 3 decision, the California Supreme’s noted that while there is a civil registry, union in place, it simply is NOT ENOUGH of a guarantee. Kind of says it all, doesn’t it?

But in the justices’ recent 4-3 decision, they stated that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. (source – CBC News)

Now you just know that the religious right wing nuts will be out in force seeking a Constitutional Ban on same sex marriage, because after all, the Rule of Law doesn’t count in the United States, least not when it comes to pushing their own narrow religious views on the Minorities of the country.

Rather sad that, but in all honesty, how can it be anything but Marriage?

If people want to be kept safe, to have their rights guaranteed, the only safe way is to insure that it can’t be trampled on by future legislation, or that if someone does want to, they’d have to make it universal. Now we know that isn’t going to happen, which is why it really is essential to have it as Marriage.

The California Supreme Court, narrowly, saw it that way too. After all, isn’t the precept, One Law for All?