(If you are looking for my Music Moves Me post, please click here).
Today, I am deviating from my theme for a special reason. I hope you will read on.
Years ago, I took a private oath that I would not allow a tragic event that took place in my New York State community on April 3, 2009 be forgotten, and it is time for my annual commemoration.
Today, I leave (I'll be back tomorrow) South Carolina. I should have been blogging about the topic I chose for this year's Blogging from A to Z Challenge: Exploring South Carolina and the Eastern United States. This should have been a happy post filled with art, flowers, or something else. But...
The fifteenth most deadly mass shooting (we are tied with Columbine) in the United States happened blocks from where I worked for many years in downtown Binghamton, New York on April 3, 2009.
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| What downtown Binghamton, New York looks like in early May |
On that date, a troubled 41 year old immigrant walked into a building housing the American Civic Association (ACA) on the edge of downtown Binghamton. He shot the receptionist (she survived) and then entered an adult classroom for immigrants. Seconds later, 14 people, including the shooter (by his own hand), were dead.
Most of the victims were, themselves, immigrants.
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| Festival at the ACA, 2013 |
Since then, I have written other blog posts about this shooting.
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| The local memorial to this shooting |
I've about run out of words to say, because there aren't words anymore.
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| Inside of ACA, 2012 |
But this year is especially tragic because of the May 14, 2022 shooting in a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York, which was targeted towards people of color. The 18 year old shooter drove over two hundred miles away from his home to Buffalo to commit this atrocity.
His home was a suburban area near Binghamton, New York. But now, his home is prison, as he pleaded guilty and has been sentenced.
He will serve 11 consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole, but it won't bring back the 11 innocents (including a security guard) who died that day. It won't salve the pain of the families, the friends, who will live with this burden for the rest of their lives.
There have been so many mass shootings in our country, how do we remember them all?
As for Binghamton, I will not forget April 3, 2009. I wish we could emerge from this national nightmare but it won't be today, and it won't be tomorrow.
Tomorrow, back to South Carolina, and happier posts.
Thank you for commemorating this. All these losses are painful and tragic, and they should not be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteThe Multicolored Diary
Such a sad and tragic story to read about.
ReplyDelete...this country has had so many shooting, that I'm become numb about it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a tragedy! The only way to stop violent crimes is for such individuals to have a change of heart. A change that can only come from above. May the innocent souls lost rest in peace!
ReplyDeleteCommemorating this so close to home tragedy brings back the never to be forgotten lives lost and hopefully be a catalyst for awareness and prevention of these events.
ReplyDeleteCollectInTexasGal
No words
ReplyDeleteIt all makes me so angry...
ReplyDeleteCommemorating helps us heal from tragedies like the 2009 shooting. So good that you take time out to grieve for this and similar losses.
ReplyDeleteSo disturbing and shocking!! My heart breaks to read of such atrocities! Commemorating is a great way to remind people of all the precious lives that were lost. So many families will never be able to come to terms with it.
ReplyDeleteSomeday, in spite of censorship, the world *will* get out to these doctors who hand out so many of the drugs associated with this pattern of behavior as if they were candy. Antidepressants may help some people but they need to be used with great caution,
ReplyDeleteTruly no words.
ReplyDelete