Sunday, April 3, 2022

A Community Heals

Over the years, since 2009, there have been so many deadly mass shootings that they all blur together for us in the United States.  Las Vegas, Orlando, Blacksburg, Virginia (Virginia Tech), Newtown, Connecticut (Sandy Hook Elementary), Columbine, Colorado, and so many others.

The fourteenth most deadly mass shooting (we are tied with Columbine and several other cities) in the United States happened blocks from where I worked in downtown Binghamton, New York on April 3, 2009, 13 years ago today.

13 years...how the time flies.  It's a cliche to say "it seems like yesterday" but it does.

On April 3, 2009, a troubled 41 year old immigrant walked into a building housing the American Civic Association on the edge of downtown Binghamton.  He shot the receptionist (she survived) and entered an adult classroom for immigrants.  Seconds later, 14 people, including the shooter (by suicide), were dead.

Let us say their names (except for the shooter, whose name I will not mention):

Parveen Ali, Almir Olimpio Alves, Marc and Maria Bernard, Li Guo, Lan Ho, Layla Khalil, Roberta King, Jiang Ling. Hong Xiu “Amy” Mao Marsland, Dolores Yigal, Hai Hong Zhong, and Maria Zobniw.

The shooter bought his gun legally, in a sporting goods chain store (no longer in business) a bit more than a mile from my house.  He frequented the Binghamton library, the same library I've spent many happy hours in.

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.

If you read the post, you will read about a co-worker who was with me that day, as we walked in downtown Binghamton and wondered why the streets were so empty.  She has since passed away.  May she rest in peace. 

Since then, I have written other blog posts.  Here are some of them.

Commemoration #7
Crocus of Commemoration 
Commemoration
Mrs. King's Dolls

This 2020 article in our local paper details the impact on those left behind.  

May they rest in peace.

A quiet memorial will be held today.

Last year, our local PBS station published a post on How a Community Heals.  Too many communities, too many families, too many, too many...

A nation asks when it will stop.  Impacted communities continues to remember.

12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes, welcome to a country where we seem so inspired to destroy ourselves.

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  2. It will never stop as long as we continue making deadly weapons readily available to emotionally unstable individuals. In other words, in this country, it is likely it will never stop.

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  3. Healing is a lifetime journey, isn't it? Several people I know, from all degrees of friendship, were wounded/killed in the January 8, 2011 Tucson shooting. Last night it was Sacramento. It hurts my heart, every time it tears away my soul.

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    Replies
    1. For those who knew someone (I had met someone killed in our mass shooting, but I didn't know her)it's a lifelong hurt, and I can't imagine that pain. Over and over.

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  4. And now San Francisco. It just doesn't stop, does it? And the people who can do something about it...

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  5. And ironically just before I came here I was reading about a mass shooting at a concert in California

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    Replies
    1. I pre wrote this, before I knew either about Dallas or Sacramento. So sad. Our national tragedy.

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  6. As long as some American has there so call love for guns. I'm sorry to say "Gun Violence" won't go down. Until we look at guns in different light, than I believe things will change.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  7. If you remove the guns and leave the violence, you get more gruesome murders--with bombs, with cars, with tour buses, with fertilizer, or in one case outside Washington, with shoes. I recommend dropping the gun ban 'debate' (gun bans didn't work well when tried) and focussing on the lack of supervision of patients using medication known to be associated with homicide/suicides.

    ReplyDelete

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