I wish I could blog about something else for my C post for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.
Back when I wrote my first C post during Blogging from A to Z, I said that "Commemoration" would forever be the topic of my "C" post, and so it continues to be, on the 12th anniversary of a horrible day that will be marked by the community where I worked for many years.
April 3, 2009.
It seems like nothing has changed except the number of dead and injured over the years, has it?
On April 3, 2009, a gunman burst into an adult education classroom at
the American Civic Association, blocks from where I worked in downtown
Binghamton, New York. Within minutes, 14 people (including the gunman)
were dead. Both the shooter and many of the victims were immigrants to our country, seeking a better life. Two children were left orphans.
My first blog post, April 10, 2009,
was taken from an email I sent to some friends after receiving phone
calls and emails asking if I was all right. It wasn't quite an eye
witness report, but you can, if you want, call it the impressions of
someone on the fringe of a tragic event.
The mass shooting in Binghamton April 3 helped me make up my mind to start a blog. I wanted
this blog to be a type of journey through my life so I started with
my personal experience the morning and afternoon of April 3. The description starts with my lunch period that day, spent with a co-worker who, sadly, passed away this past year.
Back in 2016, when I posted pictures of a monument to the victims of this shooting , I asked, "How many more monuments to the dead will we have to build?"
The answer is simple: way too many.
That's all I will say. It's been said too many times.
The next post should be happier. Thank you for reading to the end. Except it isn't the end. There doesn't seem to be an end until we the American people decide it has to end.
We haven't decided that yet.
"C" Day for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme "New York State".
Tomorrow is a free day, so I resume with "D" on Monday.
Happy Easter tomorrow to all who celebrate.
...wil gun violence ever be sensibly addressed?
ReplyDeleteEvery mass shooting we say the same thing ... and do nothing.
ReplyDeleteSo sad and there sure doesn't seem to be an end in sight.
ReplyDeleteI thought of this today when I saw a flag half-mast. It's been that way so many times in the past few weeks, I couldn't remember which death/s this time it was for. Horrible. As Songbird says, we say it has to stop, but do nothing to make it stop, or even slow up.
ReplyDeleteI remember this post from past A to Z challenges. Sadly, there are new communities holding similar memorial gatherings and commemorations. You have summed it up aptly, "It won't end until we decide it should." Let's hope that is soon.
ReplyDeleteWay too much violence, way too many guns. Not just in US. Let's hope better sense prevails sometime soon.
ReplyDeleteYou would think we would have learned our lesson by now, but way too many powerful people have a vested interest in the guns, and they figure that profit is more important than people. How long will we let profit be more important than people?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, violence is the result of someone's heart and until change begins there nothing else matters. It's truly sad. Not every person who owns or is in possession of a firearm is evil. I rather preserve the rights to bear arms than to let only those with authority (or criminals) to have all the guns. But enough on that, right?
ReplyDeleteCurious as a Cathy’s Looney Tunes A-Z Cecil Turtle Art Sketch. Happy A2Zing, my friend!