Senior Victim of Hate

Senior Citizen in Detroit Victim of Hate

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing.”  Benjamen Franklin

Just a few days ago, news quickly spread of an inspirational story where a group of senior citizens fended off attackers in the coastal town of Limon, Costa Rica.  The story was encouraging to those of us anxious for a story where the good guy comes out ahead.

Sadly, the story mentioned above has turned somewhat bittersweet today when I began reading about a very sad and unfortunate incident that took the life of a 72-year-old gentle senior citizen in Detroit, Michigan. 

Returning from the public library on a city bus, Andrew Anthos, known best for his 20-year patriotic attempt to get the Michigan State Capital to be lit for one day a year with red, white, and blue lights, crossed paths with hatred against which he alone could not defend.  

Anthos, who lived modestly on a disability check, was apparently questioned at some point during his bus ride as to whether or not he was gay.   After Anthos got off the bus in front of the apartments where he lived and had begun assisting a wheelchair-bound friend through the wintery snow, he was hit in the back of the head with a metal pipe by the questioning young attacker who had followed him off the bus. 

Without warning and without a chance to defend himself, if that would have even been possible for a disabled man aged 72, Anthos received a blow to his skull which left him unable to speak and requiring immediate surgery.  Following surgery, Anthos remained paralized from the neck down for the remaining ten short days of his life.

Anthos’ niece, Athena Fedenis, spoke in sobs and with affection about her late uncle, as she stated, “This is a hate crime against someone who never had a bad thought against anybody.  He sang angelically, he spoke eloquently…”  Fedenis also stated, with regard to the lighting project, that Anthos,  “made me promise to work on his behalf.”

Though Anthos was never able to see his beloved Michigan capital lit up in patriotic splendor, the stories of this gentle man and his 20 years of persistence to his colorful cause are inspirational, worth remembering, and certainly “worth the writing.”