Friday, June 17, 2016

Day of Rage in Tucson Arizona - 2011 - Revisited




(February 7, 2011)



I lived and worked in Tucson Arizona for close to eight years back in the 1990s. I worked for a short time, 100 yards down the road from the recent mass murders there that involved the shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of the U.S. Congress.

As stated I worked down the road from the Safeway and its parking lot, the scene of this recent American-style tragedy. I even ate lunch a few times in a food court setting in the front of the supermarket way back when. 

I researched this matter of the shootings that took the life of a nine year old girl among others. The date is January 8, 2011. Seems like two months ago instead of one month to me. Time seems to be compressed sometimes concerning memory. 

I had written an account of the attack on Rep. Giffords Tucson office at the end of the debate and vote on Health Care Reform last year. The attack in the middle of the night and broken glass brought to mind the terrible tragedy of Kristallnacht in Nazi controlled Germany in November 1938 against Jews in the population. I made reference to that event because Ms. Giffords is Jewish.

Kristallnacht – Tucson - USA 

The apparently troubled young man who did the shootings and these murders seems to have bought into a uniquely American style of settling arguments or supplementing mental disorders with guns. 

Because I had been in this place in Tucson and knew its layout I did not write anything or comment until now. I felt the tragedy in a personal sense having a shared experience of the geography with the victims. I should also note that it took me five years to finally write down my experiences of the 911 tragedy here in NYC. 

No Guarantee of Tomorrow

I also wanted to turn a corner in this blog whereby I did not want to poll parrot the party line coming out of the media. The media turns on cable and cable turns on the middle class who can afford it. The media rightly or wrongly from left or from right seems to feed on the energy of rage both in content and filler. I need to and we all need to as well step back from the edge of that rage that permeates our complex modern society. 

Rage is not only a middle class thing but perhaps a middle aged thing. It comes from the disappointment from expectations not fulfilled. It comes from recognizing the disappointment from the perspective of age and or wisdom from life experience. 

I do not want to merely echo the media and its sounds of fury. 

Now a month later I can look and see how death by random acts of violence is fed by rage and guns. 

I do not object to hunters having rifles in their homes with or without permits. I do object to weapons of war with high capacity discharge being sold in America. They are not necessary in a civilized society. 

I think that licensing handguns within the confines of city limits is the right of the well being of the population of that densely populated city to assure protection from violence and violent mental illness spilling into the streets and onto the parking lots of America. 

I am not advocating repeal of the second amendment’s right to bear arms. I am trying to find common grounds with all parties to seek a solution to too much gun power in America and to too many guns. 

The days of the wilderness are long gone. The days of conflict with the native Indian population are long gone. In the twenty first century, a fetish for guns and gun power is a bit outdated and obsessive. It speaks of the breakdown of community and loss of civility in our society. 

The gun lobby and the media lobby both seem to be catering to keeping the rage up to sell their products. Whatever. 

I am glad that Representative Giffords survived and may well have a normal life returned to her after much therapy. 

Prayers for the victims and their families in Tucson. Prayers for the perpetrators, both the lobbyists of hate and rage, as well as for the disturbed young man who committed this crime.





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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Weeping Lady of the Graveyard - Starr Cemetery - Knox PA


A  Country Graveyard - Pennsylvania


Copy of e-mail to a friend:

----: Just an FYI – no need to reply

Found an image of my uncle by marriage to my mother’s only sister - his gravesite – NW of Knox Pa – near the state teachers college in Clarion off of I-80. I guess my aunt is buried closer to home where she was in elderly housing in Shamokin as of a few years ago -  where my first cousin still lives with his second wife – have not spoken to cousin for years btw – that except for one letter from me to him after my aunt died. 

Uncle ---- died of lung cancer and was cremated.  Since the Government was picking up much of the tab including the burial marker because he was a Vet, my aunt buried his urn in a local cemetery, the Starr Cemetery, a secular graveyard with a few hundred graves.  The oldest stone is from the thirties, Michael and Martha Starr.

I relate all this to you because of your interest in Genealogy and grave yards etc. I visited this cemetery on a cold winter’s day in maybe Jan. or Feb. 1983, along with, alone with my cousin’s first wife; my cousin was in the hospital with an Asthma attack that weekend (marital stress?). I drove from New York to pay my respects to my aunt etc. that one weekend I could get away from my job.  Cold as the Artic and windy-yy.

I looked on the Google aerial map and I think they have since cut down part of the forest that then surrounded this very small cemetery.  It was the strangest place I ever visited to date. The forest, the gloom, cloudy, sunny, cloudy sunny etc. place. A view for dozens of miles in some directions with breaks in the tree line. A high place. It felt like I was on top of a mountain.  I paid my respects and we were leaving to go back to the car.


It was then that I heard it. I turned and the sound disappeared. Must have been the wind. I turned my head again and heard it again and louder. It was not the wind. As I turned, the sound disappeared. What I heard was the sound of a woman, the sound close to the ground, the sound of a woman weeping and it had a muffled quality as if coming from the other side of a door. I asked my cousin’s wife if she heard it. I described it to her. She did not hear it; had not heard it. Haunted?


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Monday, June 13, 2016

Orlando - Spinning the Truth About Hate Crimes in Orlando - Gays and Hispanics




President Obama made an honest assessment of the tragedy in Orlando as being an act of Terror and an act of Hate.

Everybody wants to spin this thing. The Pope and archbishop of Louisville KY put out statements deploring violence in Orlando conveniently skirting the issue of LGBT and any honest discussion about human sexuality that the church conveniently ignores at every turn.

Watching Fox News Business Varney and Co, the host held up a copy of the NY Daily News wondering why the “NRA” was supposed to be responsible for this act of “Islamic Terrorism” – the business channel(?).

The Orlando Sentinel has published a partial list of victims’ names. Out of the 35 names listed, I count something like 27 Hispanic sounding names.



My point is that without clear motives of the shooter, my gut reaction is that not only that this incident may be a Hate Crime against Gays but also being a Hate Crime against Hispanics – considering the current political atmosphere and certain political presumptives taking credit for acts of mass violence in some peculiar narcissistic manner.


That if so-called Gay Clubs as like churches in America – they are segregated along racial and ethnic lines, I have to wonder who the killer hated more before he committed his soul to hell and his 72 virgins – whether who did he hate more – the Gays or the Hispanics? Or both equally?


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