"And in the distance I could see the sparkling lights of Laramie, Wyoming."

City Lights-

Bustling, Crowded, Noisy,

Hectic, Stressful, Loud....

Distant, Elevated, Removed,

Calm, Quiet, Serene,

Beatiful, Bright, Sparkling.

Negative Stereotype

Almost everyone is familiar with the stereotype that women are worse drivers than men.  Teen girls are especially criticized as being poor drivers and easily distracted.  This picture shows a young girl driving while talking on the phone and putting on lipstick.  While I'm sure there are female drivers that frequently drive distracted, there are probably just as many male drivers that do the same thing.  If women really are as bad at driving as the stereotype suggests then how come young male drivers are the ones that have to pay the most for car insurance?

Positive Sterotype

It's a pretty widely known positive stereotype that most Asians are good at math, and I think that this one might have some fact behind it.  Some possible explanations for this stereotype is that there are better schools in Asia, they go to school more often/longer, or they just put more emphasis on math.  Also, languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean might be set up better so that kids can understand things like counting and fractions more easily than kids can in English. But none of these explanations address the success of Asian-Americans with math.  I think that the main reason they tend do better is probably more pressure to succeed coming from their parents. Regardless of why they are better, or even whether or not they are actually better, I see it as a positive stereotype that people assume Asian people are really good at math.

Whites

I couldn't really think of a positive stereotype that applied to me so I decided to just go with this picture.  Some positive stereotypes for white people is that they are rich, prone to be successful, and unlikely to commit crimes.  In my opinion positive stereotypes can be just as bad as negative stereotypes depending on the situation.

Jocks

In my opinion Jock is a negative stereotype that isn't even very accurate anymore.  In movies and t.v. shows football players are always wearing their letterman jackets and they are almost always portrayed as bullies.  Jocks also tend to be unintelligent, but at Monarch I think athletes break away from the stereotype because they are usually super nice and they tend to be pretty motivated academically too.

Controversy

Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church heavily protested at Matthew Shepard's funeral in Casper, Wyoming on Saturday, October 17, 1998.  Phelps held signs that said "No Special Laws for Fags" and even one that had a picture of Matt on it that read "Matt In Hell".   Luckily, people who cared about Matthew and his family dressed up as angels and used their large wings to try to block out the hateful signs.  They had ear plugs to block out yelling and they remained silent with their eyes closed or looking up at Matt in heaven.

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkQysLewF4w

The video I chose is an audio excerpt from "The Laramie Project." It is a dramatization of Matthew's dad giving a speech in the court room right before the sentencing of Aaron McKinney.  This is a very powerful video because of both the pictures and the speech itself.  Towards the end of the video Matthew's father explains his reasoning for "granting Mr. McKinney life" by not giving him the death penalty.  He tells Mr. McKinney that every time he celebrates Christmas, a birthday or the 4th of July to remember that Matt isn't.  He goes on to say that he will never forgive Mr. McKinney for taking his son away, and then at the end he says, "May you have a long life, and may you thank Matthew every day for it."

Trial

This is a picture of Russell Henderson, Aaron McKinney, and Chastity Pasley. Henderson pleaded guilty on April 5, 1999 and agreed to testify against McKinney to avoid the death penalty. McKinney was found him guilty of felony murder, but Shepard's parent's didn't want him to get the death penalty so both McKinney and Henderson received 2 life sentences without the possibility of parole. Pasley was sentenced to 15 months in jail for being an accessory to the murder.

Matthew Shepard Bio

Matthew Wayne Shepard was born in Casper, Wyoming on December 1st, 1976(1976-12-01).  In February 1995,  Shepard was beaten and raped during a high school trip to Morocco.  This was obviously a traumatic experience for Shepard and his family, and he experienced depression and panic attacks following the incident. On October 6, 1998, Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming. McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay in order to gain Shepard's trust, and they offered to give him a ride home.  The two men proceeded to drive Shepard to a remote area where they robbed, tortured, and beat him.  They then tied him to a fence and left him there to die.  When he was discovered 18 hours later he was barely alive and in a coma. Shepard was pronounced dead 5 days later at 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998.  He died at Poudre Valley Hospital, in Fort Collins, Colorado.