Carrie L. French

On Tuesday morning I finished stitching Carrie's name. The stitched name will become a part of a larger finished object, through the Mother's Day Project. Even so, I am considering this, my contribution to the project, my first finished handmade item of my 45th year.

I chose the color purple because Carrie was baptized as a Christian while in Iraq, and, according to this website, purple symbolizes penitence and mourning in Christian liturgy.

When I googled Carrie's name, several websites came up: this one from the military, this memorial from her family and friends, and one particularly disturbing site to which I refuse to link.

Remember the church group that gained notoriety after Matthew Shepard's death, for protesting at his funeral with signs saying "God hates fags"? They're still out there. One of the links that came up was a woman's account of the day that she went to protest at Carrie's funeral. She claims that "God killed Carrie because God hates America." Why does "God hate America?" Because of the fags, of course.

As a Buddhist-influenced spiritual practitioner, I really try to bring compassion to every situation and every being. This one, I find hard. My immediate reaction is amazement and anger. And that's without even getting into the homophobia, which is so extreme as to almost be laughable.

How dare they affront Carrie's family and friends like this? To have to face such hatred while mourning the loss of a loved one is inconceivable to me. I hope that my small part in the Mother's Day Project, through which I got to know Carrie just a little, will do a little bit to counter-act that negative energy.

Nearly everything in bloom in my garden at this time of year is purple...a fitting tribute...