Remembering Mark...

On Monday, May 11th, a friend of mine was murdered.

Mark was simply one of those people that you meet who was so full of life. To all those who knew him, he was fun to be around and share a beer with. He knew who he was as a person and tried live his life without regrets.

It is so hard to put the pieces together. He came home after grabbing some Kentucky Fried Chicken and was surprised by an unknown gunman who fired between twelve to fifteen shots at Mark.

Several bullets hit him and a witness said that he had walked two steps before collapsing. He was dead almost instantly.

No one has come forward with any information or description of the killer, just that a white car was seen driving in the neighborhood around the time of the murder. The police really do not have a lot of leads to go on.

Hell, until other friends of Mark's got involved, the local news media wasn't interested in reporting the story. Apparently in his part of town, shootings are fairly common. Just wasn't "sensational" enough to warrant a story.

Until they were informed that Mark was openly gay.

Suddenly, people were starting to take an interest. The local papers, TV stations, MTV, the LOGO channel, several gay and lesbian news sources and even Ellen Degeneres' show were interested in hearing Mark's story and willing to help bring his killer to justice where they could.

Had it not been for the efforts of Mark's closest friends, his story might never had been told in the public forum. While I used to detest the media for only biting on the "juicy" stories to boost their ratings, this time I had to admit that this was probably the best chance Mark had for justice.

I only wish the victims of the "non-sensational" news variety would get the same chance.

Regardless, we gave him one hell of a send off yesterday. After the very touching and personal service which included some memories shared by his mother, brother and partner, his friends gathered together at a local bar in his hometown and hoisted a few Shiners in his memory.

For all that knew him, Mark was just a neat guy. I pray to the Universe that wherever he is, he has all the Shiner he can drink, all the fast cars he can drive and all the lakes he can ski...