The past, where Laurie and her brother Brian, use to have some kind of hold on the gay community, is the place where they want you to live. They want you to recall their glory days of how much pain they caused you so that they can feel better about the present situation that they find themselves in. In the past, Laurie could threaten you and have the police make it happen for her. In the past, you could go to sleep in your home, doors locked and get up in the morning bleeding and raped without any hope that the police would find out whom was behind it. That was the past.
People have all kinds of sayings about learning from the past or being condemned to repeat it and so forth, but the truth of the matter is that the past is a memory...it's there and it's not going to leave. You can either wallow in what could have been that didn't happen or realize what happened and make the future different. The future is going to happen, the past already did. I'm much happier knowing that I wasn't killed during Laurie and Brian's "most powerful period"; lots of folks didn't. We all have a brighter future than Laurie and Brian do, they're sick and not getting any kind of treatment. If you are reading this, you are also a survivor.
I'm not telling anyone not to pursue justice, I'm telling them not to let the past anchor you in past feelings. Move your hope to higher ground and know that someone is out there that is going to stop these two. That's way better than before. The future holds great promises of happier times without Laurie and Brian in it, let's all focus on looking at what we do have instead of what they took...after all, there is no sense in feeling the way you use to, if you don't have to feel that way in the future.
Positive moves forward keep Laurie and Brian pining away for the past. Moving to higher and safer ground keeps your hope from drowning in bad feelings. Positive is how you chase away the blues and the "should have beens"...I should know, I've had to climb that mountain several times. That mountain never moves. You are either going to reach the top and find another mountain or climb back down the same one only to climb it again. Move on to higher and better mountains. Leave the hills behind you.
