Daily fails to report on crime no one else reported on either

Nate Hurst

To the editor:

In Greg Jerrett’s “Gay-hating caveman logic,” he says, “A newspaper should report the news; not everyone is ‘concerned’ about the same things. If it only reports things that people WANT to hear about, it ceases to be news and turns into FoxNews, O.J. coverage and infotainment.”

Greg, you should make a new category: If it only reports things THEY WANT you to hear about, it ceases to be news and turns into the Iowa State Daily.

The Daily doesn’t report the news. It reports YOUR news and the news of your fellow editors. You select and print what you want us to hear and see.

If this is not true, then why does the Daily constantly keep vigil over the grave of Matthew Shepard while Jesse Dirkhising is unmentioned?

Since the Daily has failed to report the news, and has never mentioned Jesse, I will have to report.

Had Jesse Dirkhising been a victim of gun violence, or was at least killed in a school classroom, he might have received a half page column on page 4 right next to an ad for pizza.

But the Daily presses are silent. Carmen Cerra will never draw a cartoon about him.

No candlelight vigils will be held for Jesse Dirkhising. No national news agency will knock on his mother’s door. No presidential speech will be dedicated to his memory.

Who was Jesse Dirkhising? On Sept. 25, 1999, he was a 13-year-old, dusty blonde, seventh grader. On Sept. 26, he was near death on a mattress, bound with duct tape, underwear stuffed into his mouth, pillows placed under his stomach. He lay there suffocating, covered in someone else’s feces and urine.

Throughout the day, he had been repeatedly raped, tortured and sodomized, many of those times with foreign objects. Several of the objects were still strewn about on the floor, but his attackers were no longer in the room. While Jesse fought to take his last breath, they left to get themselves a sandwich.

But you have never heard the story of Jesse Dirkhising. Perhaps a small town in Arkansas is too far away for its news to be important. Perhaps it was because young Jesse wasn’t homosexual.

Or perhaps it is because his attackers were.

Police say that the two homosexual lovers who owned the Prairie Grove, Ark., home, Joshua Brown, 22, and David Don Carpenter, 38, brutally raped 13-year-old Jesse at least six times. Each has been charged with capital murder and six counts of rape.

Had this happened to a homosexual attacked by two heterosexuals, a special committee in Congress would have been formed on the matter, or at least the president would promise some new laws with tough rhetoric.

The president, or at least the vice-president, might have even flown out to mourn at his grave and give a speech, but their mouths are shut. The TV lights and cameras are not present when the mother lays flowers on her son’s grave.

Where were the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force when Jesse Dirshiking was raped, tortured and sodomized?

They cared about Matthew Shepard’s torturous death; surely they would care about young Jesse’s suffering. But alas, on that same day they were too busy sponsoring booths at a sadistic sex fair in San Francisco that celebrates “healthy” sexual bondage and torture.

Why is there no fairness in the Daily for Jesse? Is it because he is not a member of a privileged minority looking for social acceptance? Or is it because his attackers are. If the Daily only prints the “NEWS,” where is the fairness for Jesse?

When two heterosexuals torture and kill a homosexual, it’s on the front page. When two homosexuals torture and kill a heterosexual, no one cares.

When a heterosexual molests a child, he goes to jail. When a homosexual molests a child, it’s “natural,” and he joins NAMBLA.

When a heterosexual says “I have AIDS,” people say “you should have used a condom.” When a homosexual says “I have AIDS,” people say “you deserve a cure.”

When a heterosexual posts an aborted baby, it’s “pornography.” When a homosexual posts two males copulating, it’s “free speech.”

When a heterosexual disagrees with a homosexual, his speech is called “hate.”

Nate Hurst

Senior

Performing arts