[Delkaetre]

Thank you for updating us, Edward. I haven't been using the Whitby Forums terribly much recently, so I haven't been keeping myself as up-to-date as I should.
For those of you who are interested, there is a memorial bench for Sophie at Whitby- it was erected just before Christmas. The plaque on it reads "Sophie Lancaster: An Angel Too Soon". It is located near the whalebones, by the grand hotel, and looks out to sea across the harbour. A very fine view, an excellent place to just sit and think for a little while. There will be an official dedication ceremony for it at this April's Whitby Gothic Weekend, though I'm not certain which day it's on. I think it's most likely to be Saturday or Sunday morning. I believe there will be a collection for the S.O.P.H.I.E. (Stamp Out Prejudice, Hate and Intolerance Everywhere) campaign at it, but I cannot tell you that for sure.
I must say, I'm not encouraged by the fact that further charges have been dropped against the other boys who admitted to the assault on Rob Maltby. They should at least be tried as accomplices, their savagery most certainly precipitated the attack on Sophie even if they didn't kick her as hard as the two boys on trial from the 12th did.
I don't like the idea of these incredibly vicious young thugs running loose- I desperately hope to see them given realistic and heavy sentences without a chance of early release.


By-the-by, Sternn- no one is saying what happened in the Middle East is acceptable. But there are plenty of threads devoted to that and the myriad facets of it already- including the fact that it's not because they look different, it's a wholly different issue. It's because of religious, cultural, ideological and economic differences, despite your comment about "similar atrocities happening on a much larger level to other people because they don't dress like us". It's not because of how they dress. It's because of just about goddamn everything else, and please don't try to equate this local tragedy to that distant and large scale one.
We do feel strongly. You don't need to remind us of it.
Frankly, posting that up in this thread feels almost like an attempt to guilt-trip us for paying this so much attention, even though this kind of violence is likely to affect us very directly rather than indirectly as in Iraq. Of course, that may not have been your intention. It is always possible that extended study of examples of vicious attacks on my subculture of choice may be making me a little paranoid.