Eighteen year-old, Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey, posted a cryptic note on his Facebook page stating, “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry” before taking his own life. This tragic end to the life of a young man who was sweet, quiet, and an accomplished violinist was the final event in a series of appalling behaviors by fellow students, “friends,” and his own roommate.

On September 19 his roommate set in motion a chain of events leading to Tyler’s death by outing him on Twitter. The roommate’s Tweet reads: “I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.” He saw this because he turned on his webcam and spied on them! Then he posted a live streaming video on the Internet… Apparently bolstered by the bigotry-affirming responses he received (or his own issues), the roommate then spied on Tyler again and sent out another Tweet stating, “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again.”

By Angela Minor

Angela has had the good fortune to participate in several professional careers over the course of her lifetime. She has applied her skills to teaching English, and writing; small business ownership, and writing; sales and marketing, and writing; university graduate level research, and writing. As is evident, writing has been her companion throughout! She is the word nerd who actually takes notes at symposiums and events! And not just on the presented topics. She finds people, settings, interactions and conversations fascinating. The entire visual, auditory, kinesthetic experience is worth noticing and noting.

Angela has traveled the globe soaking in the scenery, culture and customs near and far. She has lived in the bush of Alaska to the Atlantic seaside of Savannah and various places in between. She is currently a full time freelance writer with pieces in various venues on the web and many local and regional publications. When she is not writing, Angela can be found at the latest Broadway show or communing with Mother Earth in The Great Smoky Mountains.