MONDAY -- and I'm so outta date with this weblog.
I'm going on vacation Thursday, so I'm gonna get "behinder."
O Patient Reader -- if ya' even exist -- stay tuned for my vacation plans (later).

YESTERDAY -- Videotaped our production of "The Laramie Project" at FVCC. I'll be titling today, and getting a VHS master made for the cast by Wednesday. My impression of the play is that it owes a lot to Thorton Wilder's "Our Town," subconsciously or not. It has the virtue of being able to be done by anybody who can read or remember lines. If your talent is greater than that, more power to you!
The actual incident of Matthew Shepard's murder continues to make news (quoted articles below):
Our school will host a panel discussion on Oct. 28 -- the day that Shepard's home town, Casper, Wyoming tries to figure it's way out of a legal conundrum that's been inflicted on the place by a very hateful preacher in Topeka, Kansas.

Patrick Letellier, PlanetOut.com Network Tuesday, October 7, 2003
Anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, whose supporters picketed Shepard's funeral with their inflammatory "God Hates Fags" signs, recently announced plans to construct an "absolutely beautiful" monument to the young man in Shepard's hometown of Casper, Wyo., the Denver Post reported.
Standing 6 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet wide, the monument would display a plaque reading: "Matthew Shepard entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God's solemn warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22," the report said.
Phelps plans to erect his monument in a one-acre, public city park, and a court ruling last year may make it impossible for city officials to stop him. In 2002, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals stipulated that since the park has displayed a monument of the Ten Commandments since 1965, monuments promoting other messages must also be allowed.

By TARA WESTREICHER Star-Tribune staff writer Monday, October 20, 2003
Casper (Wyoming) churchman dislikes basis of Phelps message
A local pastor said Sunday that the anti-homosexuality demonstrations by the Westboro Baptist Church are wrongly based in hate, not love.
Members of the Topeka, Kan., church returned to Casper on Sunday to demonstrate outside local churches that surround City Park.
Father Royce Brown, of St. Mark's Episcopal church, was reluctant to comment on the Phelps' demonstration but expressed some distaste for the group's message.
"Anytime you protest out of hate you've got the wrong basis," he said. "If you protest, you should protest out of love."
Margie Phelps, daughter of church leader Rev. Fred Phelps, said her church is pressuring city officials to let it place a monument, which would claim Shepard is in hell, on city property.
Several anti-hate protesters gathered outside of St. Mark's at 9:30 a.m. holding "Honk for Matt" and "Casper, no home for hate" signs. They stood across the street from Phelps' group.
Chief of Police Tom Pagel, who arrived at the park with several of his officers, said the demonstrations in Casper had been "mostly uneventful." Phelps asked that police be present during the demonstrations here. Their request will cost the city's taxpayers roughly $1,500, officials have said. He did not attend Sunday's demonstrations.

Fate of Ten Commandments to be decided Oct. 28
By BRENDAN BURKE Star-Tribune staff writer

The Casper City Council plans to decide the fate of the Ten Commandments monument that currently resides in City Park once and for all at a special meeting slated for Oct. 28.
At the meeting, the council will chose from three options -- two of the options have been debated in council meetings before, but the third option is a new one and might allow the monument to stay on public property without violating the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state, City Manager Tom Forslund said.
The controversy surrounding the monument, which was given to the city by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in 1965, began last month when the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote a letter to the city requesting the removal of the Decalogue on the southwest corner of Seventh and Center streets.
Having a religious monument, like a stone Ten Commandments marker, on public property is a violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, the letter said.
A ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002 states that any city that displays a Ten Commandments monument on city property must also allow monuments espousing the views of other religious or political groups. The matter was further complicated when the Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., informed the city of plans to erect a monument in City Park declaring that slain University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard is in hell because of his sexual preference. Both the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Westboro Baptist Church have threatened the city with litigation if it does not grant their requests.
The two options to be discussed at the special meeting that the council has discussed in the past are to either give the monument back to the Eagles and refuse Phelps his request, or to keep the monument in the park and refuse Phelps his request, Forslund said.
The first of these two options is unpopular with a large segment of the population and the second would almost certainly lead to litigation.
Under the new option the council will be discussing on Oct. 28, the city would "remove the Ten Commandments from City Park and put it into a new plaza that would include a number of historical documents," Forslund said. "Things like the Declaration of Independence, Preamble to the Constitution, Mayflower Compact. In other words, documents that were instrumental in the development of our law and our country." This new plaza would be on city owned property, he said.
This approach to solving a Ten Commandments dilemma was tried by the city of Grand Junction, Colo., Forslund said. When that Colorado city was legally challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union to remove the monument, Grand Junction won the case because the court determined the Decalogue was displayed in a secular manner, he added. If the council decides to follow Grand Junction's example, then most likely "the Ten Commandments would be removed from City Park and put into storage until such time as they were ready to be installed into the new plaza," Forslund said. All the legal monuments would probably be placed into the plaza at the same time, the city manager added. "And then the question would be as whether there would be groups within the community willing to donate those (other monuments) or pay for the erection of them," he added.
One area already being discussed for such a legal monument plaza is the city owned area on the southeast corner of Second and Beech streets, Forslund said.
Under this new option, Phelps' monument would not be allowed to be erected in either City Park or in the new plaza, Forslund said.
The City Council will not be taking any public comment at the special Oct. 28 meeting, the city manager said.
"They have held the public hearing already and now it is time for them to make a decision," he said.
However, persons wishing to make their opinions known on the matter can do so by contacting the city or individual council members.