Clouds, Cruise and Commemoration #SkywatchFriday #AtoZChallenge

Today, for "C" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, it's going to be a busy blog post for me.  I participate in a skywatching meme each Friday, and I'm also doing the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

First, watching the sky for Yogi's Skywatch Friday, I am featuring some Clouds I saw from my front porch on March 31, just before a severe thunderstorm hit.  

We were on the fringes of the storm, but we still got pea sized hail.  Fortunately, nothing seemed damaged and Clouds qualify for "C" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Next, on the way to the Boston, Massachusetts cruise port in July, 2024, I saw this beautiful urban art:

Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, July 2024.  , I'd love to know who created this.

The next few pictures were taken at the Flynn Cruise port.  To my delight, there was artwork on this building.

 

These are hard to see so I turned one into a high contrast black and white photo.

The Boston skyline, as we embarked on the cruise

Sailboats in the harbor.

Finally, a Commemoration I do each year on my blog.   On April 3rd of each year, I Commemorate a mass shooting at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York.  

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. 

Most of the victims were, themselves, immigrants.

This post of April 10, 2009 was my first blog post. 

 I will not forget, and neither will the people of Binghamton.  There has been so much mindless violence since that date, and it's hard, thinking of all the families who have suffered.

Here is a commemoration event held in 2025. 

It seems like nothing has changed except the number of dead and injured over the years, hasn't it?

I wish I didn't have to blog about it during a Blogging from A to Z Challenge whose theme is Beauty in our Land.

I will leave you with one more spot of beauty - Madame Alexander's Dolls, a tribute to one of the dead. Sadly, the museum I blogged about no longer exists, but the memory lives on.

Tomorrow, a happier D post. 

 

Commemoration Fifteen #AtoZChallenge

Today is not Wordless, but it is full of history.  It's a history everyone in our area wishes had never happened.

It's been 15 years.  It's so hard to believe.

On April 3rd of each year, I break from my theme of the year for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge to commemorate those murdered in the mass shooting at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York.  

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, New York.  He shot the receptionist (she survived) and entered an adult classroom for immigrants.  Seconds later, 14 people, including the shooter (by suicide), were dead.

What follows are some of the memorials.

 

Let us remember our community members (except for the shooter, whose name I will not mention):

Most of the victims were, themselves, immigrants. They came from China, from Ukraine, from Haiti, from Vietnam, from all over the world, to seek a better life.  This evening, there will be a memorial service to remember them:  Parveen Ali, Almir Olimpio Alves, Marc Henry Bernard, Marie Sonia Bernard, Li Guo, Lan Ho, Layla Khalil, Roberta "Bobbie" Badaines King, Jiang Ling, Mao Hong Xiu, Dolores "Dinah" Cabonilas Yigal, Haihong Zhong and Maria "Mima" Zobniw.

A small park a few blocks from the ACA contains memorials to the 13.

One of the sadder parts of our community's trauma isn't what happened on April 3, 2009, but rather on May 14, 2022, when a member of our community committed a mass shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York.   The 18 year old shooter, a white supremacist,  killed 10 people there because he hated the color of their skin.  He pled guilty in November of 2022 and was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

The 2009 shooting led to me starting to blog.  This post of April 10, 2009 was the first blog post I wrote. It was based on an email I wrote.

Some previous posts honoring those who died on that day:

A Community Heals
Crocus of Commemoration 
Commemoration
Mrs. King's Dolls

I will keep remembering this day here as long as I continue to blog.

"C" day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme:  Gardens, History, Art and The Unexpected.

Binghamton (Remembering) #AtoZChallenge

 (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.

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. 

Festival at the ACA, 2013

Since then, I have written other blog posts about this shooting.

The local memorial to this shooting

I've about run out of words to say, because there aren't words anymore.

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.

Yes We Can

Trigger alert - this is something on the minds of so many people in our country.

If you are not from the United States, you may well be looking at us here in horror.

Hint:  this post is not about crocuses.  I just wanted to provide a spot of beauty before I begin my tale.

I had lunch yesterday with some work friends, including a work friend who is retired.  We try to have lunch once a month, At work, I sat mere feet away from the retired friend. We've known each other for years. 

After lunch, when our other lunch companions had to return to work, we sat in her car a while and talked.

She's a grandmother of several. (I am not a grandmother - yet, anyway).  Her youngest grand lives just a couple of miles from her and she sees him a couple of times a week. 

My friend was telling me about the recent lockdown at her grand's elementary school.  The school had received a threat and the lockdown was a precaution.

We've gotten really good at lockdowns in our United States.

Her grandson explained about the lockdown matter of factly.  "We were told to sit in our cubbies", he explained.  "Our teacher gave us cookies and a book".

Like others his age and beyond, he's already been through active shooter drills.

We baby boomers may have thought our duck and cover drills were bad, but, on the other hand, we didn't live with news about the most recent atomic bombing on the evening news.

Her grandson's teacher says that many of the children in his class are behind where they should be now, emotionally.   The pandemic may have had something to do about it - but.

But.

What kind of country are we if we can't fight for the lives and the emotional health of our children and grandchildren?  The number one cause of mortality in children and teens in the United States is - guns.

This week, it was the turn of Nashville, Tennessee, a state where gun laws were recently loosened (and they want to loosen them even more).  Next week, we, where I live, will commemorate the April 3, 2009 mass shooting in an adult classroom which took the lives of 14.

Yes, it's true that not all mass casualty events are caused by guns.  Some use cars.  Some use other weapons. 

But guns hold a special place in the hearts of enough people in this country that we lack the will to take any kind of measures to try to fight what is happening.  

Mental illness a cause?  Yes, but not just from people pondering that act.  The number of people in this country traumatized by each event is growing by the day.  Some people, now, are survivors of more than one mass shooting.  Sooner or later we will have a Congressman, or even a Presidential candidate who survived one.

We as a country are split about what to do.  Families (including mine) are split, too. 

So why am I writing this post?  Because I heard a Tennessee politician say, yesterday (paraphrasing) that there isn't not a whole lot we can do about the (Nashville) school shooting.  Let's think about that.

If it's mental illness causing all of this, our country's track record supporting those with mental illness and their families is abymsal.  But we do nothing about it.

If our enemy is evil, why would we sit back and accept the victory of evil over good?  Do we want to live in such a world?  Obviously, some people do.

Our children and grandchildren are looking to us.  We can not expect the generation now reaching maturity to do our work for us.  I know I haven't done enough.  

Can we turn this around?  Yes, we can.  But only if we really, in our hearts, want to.

Do we?

Tragedy in the City

What a sad weekend.  Words stick in my hands, unable to be written.  I wish this was more elegant.

If you want elegance, please enjoy some flowers from my garden in 2019.  Happier times!

The rest of this post is a bit grim, so please feel free to admire the flowers on your way out.  But I hope you'll stay.

As my United States readers know, there was a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, at a supermarket.  13 people shot, 10 dead, the alleged shooter (whose name I will not use) in police custody.  Buffalo is the second largest city in New York State after New York City.  It is also the home town of our current Governor.

The alleged shooter is an 18 year old man from Conklin, New York, which is about 15 miles from where I live near Binghamton, New York. Conklin is a small community of about 5,000 people.

Our community here in the Binghamton area knows about mass shootings.  We have felt the pain that so many communities have felt. 

On April 3, 2009 (as my regular readers know) a mass shooting several blocks from where I used to work in Binghamton took the lives of 13 innocents and the man who killed them.  That shooting convinced me to start this blog.  That shooter lived locally and bought the gun locally (at a sporting goods store now closed).

The school psychologist at Sandy Hook grew up in Vestal, another town in our area.

But these shootings were not like our shooting. Buffalo's pain is not our pain.  Our shooting didn't involve a young man who drove some 200 miles to target members of a Black community.  He picked the only supermarket in the area.  He must have known that, sooner or later, everyone in that community shopped there.

What else are we learning?  This man graduated from high school and was apparently attending our local community college. He also live streamed the shooting (which was taken down  but other sites keep posting it) and published a long manifesto with his beliefs.  He drank from the poison waters of extremist sites.  He came with weapons inscribed with symbols and words of hate.  This was, pure and simple, a crime of hate.

He purchased his Bushmaster semi-automatic weapon locally in the Binghamton area (although it was modified after sale in a way that would not be legal in New York.) The gun shop that sold the gun is now being targeted on social media, and has closed for this week, and I will not name it.

These are some of those he killed.  Reports state he had planned to visit other sites to continue his spree but the Buffalo police came too quickly. It's also reported that he may have also scouted out Rochester another major New York city, for a shooting.

By all accounts, this Buffalo neighborhood is a close knit community, and the residents are coming together in their grief as they now have nowhere to buy food.

Worse yet, this wasn't the only active shooter event in our country this weekend.  It was just the most deadly. There was a church shooting in Laguna Hills, California, also described as a hate crime. That shooting was stopped by a heroic doctor who died. There was a shooting in a flea market in Houston.  There were shootings in several locations in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  There were other shootings that didn't even make the news.

No community is immune from the poison of hatred or the easy availability of weapons, and we ask ourselves again, "why?" If we aren't minorities who are targets of hate crimes (people of color, Americans of Asian-Pacific origin, various religions) we may live in fear, a fear we don't dare show as we go about our everyday lives. (I say "we" because I am a member of one of those groups).  But make no mistake, everyone in this country is at risk.   Hatred is out of control.  It has become mainstream.

Americans have asked that question of "why" too many times now, in this nation.

How many times is too many?

Or will we offer thoughts and prayers yet again, and then move on, leaving the families and friends of Buffalo, of Laguna Hills, of Winston-Salem, of Houston, of previous sites like El Paso, Pittsburgh, Orlando, and Sacramento...so many other towns and places where hate has surfaced, to pick their lives back up?

This time, what will we choose to do?

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.

Commemoration 12 #AtoZChallenge

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.

Here is my post from 2016.

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.

The Dollhouses of Memory

Tonight, at sundown, I will light candles for the third night of Hanukkah, along with millions of others throughout the world.

Today, I remember an educator, Roberta King.

Roberta King was a member of the congregation that runs the museum Hanukkah House which has become a place I visit each year (except this year when it is, apparently, closed). She was a mother of 10 who taught English for immigrant adult education classes at Binghamton, New York's American Civic Association - until the day she was murdered, with 12 of her students and co workers. April 3, 2009 is a day no one in Binghamton will ever forget.

Her family refused to surrender to hate.  Instead, they continue to permit Hanukkah House to display her dollhouses (and extensive doll collection) each year for the community to enjoy.

Here's one of them.

And another.  I've posted some of these pictures (taken in 2016) before and I'd like to show you some of these dollhouse scenes today.  Let's go in, shall we?

The rooms are so detailed - wallpaper, curtains, even cut "flowers".

Wicker furniture on a patio.

The lady of the house in her bedroom.

A servant on the left?

It's time to leave.  Farewell for another year.

There are details (not necessarily visible in the pictures I took) showing that these dollhouse occupants are Jewish (such as a menorah on display). 

I may show more from Hanukkah House later in this holiday, which ends sundown on December 18.

Coronavirus and Commemoration #SkywatchFriday #AtoZChallenge

I am Committed to watching the sky, even if it has to be from my living room window or my backyard, due to COVID-19. Tonight we would have had our First Friday in downtown Binghamton.  That, now, is on hold, along with almost everything else.

This is a closed school in Binghamton, New York - actually, it is the middle school that Rod Serling (of Twilight Zone fame) attended. Spooky in this lighting, isn't it?

But, for this first Skywatch of the 2020 Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I also bring you some Clouds and skies of places  that begin with C.

Like this Charleston, South Carolina sunset.

Canandaigua Lake, New York.

Another Canandaigua Lake, 2016.

Cayce, South Carolina, August of 2017.  I wonder what they like to do there (at least, in happier times).  I love the sunset in broad daylight.  The Palmetto and moon are the state symbol of South Carolina.  Golf...well, golf is golf.

And finally, Columbia, South Carolina, the day after the total eclipse of the sun.  Looks so pretty, but it was so very hot.

Want more?  Join Yogi and the other bloggers of #SkywatchFriday.

One additional, sad note (and you can choose not to read on):  On April 3rd of each year, I Commemorate the mass murder at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York, which is tied for 14th worst in United States mass shootings with Columbine.   It led to me starting to blog.  This post of April 10, 2009 was the first post I made.

Now, it seems to far away.  But I will not forget, and neither will the people of Binghamton.  May the 13 innocents who died that day rest in peace.  And may our heroes vanquish the Coronavirus that is taking so many lives today, all over the world.

Some previous posts honoring those who died on that day:
Crocus of Commemoration 
Commemoration
Mrs. King's Dolls

May they forever Rest in Peace.

For me, their murders will always be tied to "C" day of the A to Z Challenge.

"C" day on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  My theme "America the Beautiful".

Crocus of Commemoration #AtoZChallenge #blogboost

I wish this was going to be a happier post.

If you don't want to read about a tragedy, then please enjoy these crocuses in bloom.

But I hope you read on.

It's all about three seconds.  Police estimate that is all it took.  Three seconds.

One of the thirteen memorial plaques

The thirteenth most deadly mass shooting (we are actually tied with Columbine) in the United States happened blocks from where I work in downtown Binghamton, New York on April 3, 2009, 10 years ago today.

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.

The shooter bought his gun legally, in a store (no longer in business) a bit more than a mile from my house.  He frequented the Binghamton library, the same library whose crocuses are featured at the top of my post.  The same Binghamton 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.

Since then, I have written other blog posts.  This is the one I wrote on April 3, 2016. 
I've written several about Roberta King, the teacher in that classroom.

ACA shooting memorial, Binghamton, New York

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 personally- although I had met one of them (Roberta King) 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.

Here are the dead.  They came from many places.  One couple, a husband and wife, left two children, six and 12.  Others left children, too.

To quote our local paper:

"Some were young and full of hope for the future. Some were in the prime of their lives, happy to be living here and enjoying the fruits of their labors.

Some came here in search of knowledge, some in search of a safer, saner place to settle down and raise their families."

One of the symbolic soaring birds at the ACA memorial

But more sobering, to us in Binghamton, it seems as though many have forgotten.

At the time, this was the seventh most deadly shooting in the United States.  Now, so many other shootings have crowded ours out.  Who can blame others for forgetting us, when there has been (in no particular order) Orlando, Las Vegas, Virginia Tech, Newtown, Connecticut, Sutherland Springs, Texas, Parkland, Florida and too many more to mention?

But, with the suicide this past week, of two survivors of mass shootings and the father of a woman who died in a mass shooting, I am concerned that anyone who is living through this hell (and it is a rest-of-their-lives hell only they can fully understand) ever feel like they are forgotten. For these families and co-workers, every day of the past 10 years has been April 3, 2009. 

Cars passing the ACA shooting memorial in Binghamton, taken by my "guest photographer"

Various media outlets, including the Boston Globe, have noted Binghamton being left off lists in news coverage of other shootings.  Is that important?  Yes, because it makes many of us feel forgotten.  It's understandable in our minds, but not in our hearts.

But we in Binghamton, New York haven't forgotten you.

Why? It could be the flood of mass shootings that have followed the Binghamton shooting.   Just one more spot of pain in a list that grows longer every day?  Even the students of Parkland-turned-activists haven't been able to shock us out of national paralysis.

Will the shootings ever end?  Will the nightmare of thousands of survivors ever end?

Day 3 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost and "C" day of #AtoZChallenge

Dollhouses - #WordlessWednesday

Every year I pay tribute to Roberta King, who was murdered in a mass shooting at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York on April 3, 2009.  She was a collector of dolls and dollhouses that represented Jewish life, and her family generously allows the Hanukkah House museum (open for a month each year in Binghamton, New York) to display some of her dollhouses and dolls.

When someone passes on, what remains are the memories.

A room.

This museum is in what used to be a mansion belonging to a patent medicine maker who became quite wealthy.

Memories of the past.

Join Esha and Natasha each Wednesday for #WordlessWednesday.