Most of the victims were, themselves, immigrants.
On April 10, 2009, I wrote my first blog post, based on an email I wrote the day of the shooting, as people concerned about my safety called or emailed me.
Since then, I have written other blog posts. This is the one I wrote last April 3. Here are some others:
Several about Roberta King, the teacher in that classroom.
Several commemorating other shootings.
And this one.
Not all memories are good ones. I know that, as I travel through time and space. Although I know someone who works for ACA (he wasn't there at the time), and another person whose mother in law was in the building when the shooting happened (she wasn't injured), I didn't know any of the dead - although I had met one of them several years before. Still, every time there is a mass killing in the news, I think back to that day, and can feel only sadness for those going through the experience now.
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| Monument to the Innocent Dead, Binghamton, New York |
Every April 3, I blog about that shooting, a shooting that some have called "the deadliest mass shooting that everyone forgot". This year, with immigration very much in the news, this post becomes even harder to write.
What a shame that even writing this yearly commemorative post has, itself, become a political act.
The years pass, and we in Binghamton still ask "why?"
"B" day on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme: Traveling Through Time and Space.
I worked in a hospital where a disgruntled former employee came in with a shotgun and killed an administrator. The folks he was looking for were out of the building. It is sad when these things happen.
ReplyDeleteIt is, Denise.
DeleteDespite the widespread publicity of pointless shootings and the unnecessary loss of life, these random acts of violence still continue unabated.... sad truth of life
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad truth.
DeleteScary, isn't it, how many mass shootings there have been.
ReplyDeleteSo many tragic pointless events. When will this madness stop. I have stoppped watching the news as there doesn't seem to be anything else they are reporting. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteMy answer- if we can't regulate guns, let's simply regulate ammunition. You can have the right to bear arms- but must justify why you need more ammunition...
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd heard about the shooting until I read your post. It's sad that there are so many mass killings that we lose track of them. You've found a nice way of honoring the victims.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird this is labeled "the deadliest mass shooting everyone forgot" because my husband is a Binghamton alum and I don't remember this at all. (Not that my memory is anything to brag on these days.) So tragic.
ReplyDeleteB is for Building 7: 9/11’s Smoking Gun?
So much sadness, so much heartache, and so many random acts of violence... there is so much healing that is left undone... and the unrelenting violence just continues. Thank you for expressing yourself in this beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteNot all memories are good ones - so true. There's just too much violence in the world, and sadly no-one seems to be able to do anything to stop it. Your experience must have been beyond traumatic! Thank you for sharing so frankly.
ReplyDeleteNilanjana
From Madly-in-Verse
There are just some events that we carry with us forever. While we think we would like to forget them we also know that not only can't we forget, we don't really want to EVER forget. Such is this.
ReplyDeleteAnd they just keep happening. When will we as a culture figure out a way to stop these things. Only when we figure out how to get these angry people to express their anger in a different way.
ReplyDeletesome events are etched in our minds and some in the history of time.. .thanks for sharing this one...
ReplyDeleteNot all memories are good...but we still need to write about them.
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad reality that there have been so many of these that we start to forget them. Or, worse, take it as inevitable.
ReplyDeleteThe Ninja Librarian’s Favorite Characters
The incident is terrible :( And I still don't understand why there aren't strict gun laws in US. :(
ReplyDeleteI honor you for commemorating this sad event so it's not forgotten.
ReplyDelete@dSavannahCreate from
dSavannahRambles
(not writing for #AtoZ this year)
These tragic events have become more frequent in recent years. Makes one despair for society, in general.
ReplyDeleteDebbie @ THE DOGLADY'S DEN
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