I had to wait a few days before I could write this. My first selfish thought was "not again in Arizona." It's where I've lived for more than half of my life and I sometimes think that only bad news that happens here is reported. Then I could only stare at the TV, hoping that no one was dead or badly injured. It took several hours before I could wonder about the shooter: was he that angry, was he insane?
Then I heard about people like Daniel Hernandez and the older woman who grabbed the magazine out of the gun, and the one who staunched the wounds of one of Ms Gifford's staff. People on the street all over Arizona wept and showed our best face to the rest of the nation. We are really a melting pot of the US and of the world. People here have sponsored many of the African "Lost Boys." We have world class hospitals that often bring suffering children and adults here for treatment they would never gete in their home countries. The Tribes of Arizona finally have decent control over their own lives and lands. Many more people (even many who oppose the undocumented immigrants) care for the individuals involved. It is a place that attracts people from all over: last time I heard less than half of the population of the two major population centers are native Arizonans. There is so much beauty in this state and so often such a feeling of small town life- even in the 5th largest city in the nation.
Lastly I began to get angry at all the hate in the world today - otherwise sensible people cannot see beyond their own biases to the point of advocating violence against innocent people. They attack funerals with signs saying that God hates dead sholdiers, that God is damning this nation because of Gays, Immigrants, and who knows what. We are all entitled to our opinions on these and other issues. What we are NOT entitled to do is to advocate hate and violence against anyone. There is a process in this country to change what we do not like, and (to be trite) the majority rules at the ballot box.
Now I want to know why none of the people who recognized that something in Loughner had changed and he was in desperate need of help did anything. A fellow student in Pima Community College wrote a long email to a friend telling a chilling story of how Loughner behaved in class and that she expected someday he would come in shooting. The instructor of the same class had him barred from the campus. His writings and speech were disjointed - what I have heard described as "salad talk." This evening's news is talking about several police contacts in Loughner's past including overdosing on vodka and being taken to the hospital. Just hours before the shooting he was stopped for driving with a burned out light- admittedly a minor thing that has happened to many, but the officer is reported as thinking something wasn't quite right but found no evidence for taking any action. A teen neighbor said that the youngsters on the street wouldn't go to the house because of the "strange vibes."
P.S. Between writing and posting this I watched, along with so many others, the service at the University of Arizona last night. Most of the speakers - especially the President and Daniel Hernandez - spoke sensitively about the people who were killed and those who are recovering. However a couple of the speakers seemed almost to be running a pep rally for the UofA. Too many of the audience (students at the UofA?) acted as if it were a pep rally. While I also cheered when President Obama announced that Rep. Gifford had opened her eyes, I found the nearly constant cheering and yelling of those too many attendees out of the spirit and intention of the ceremony.
Today we learned more of the shooter's history. What kept the campus police at Pima C.C. from taking some steps to notify the proper authorities of the vividly dangerous potential of the man? They had over 50 "contacts" with him. Did his parents hide his problems from doctors? Is this a general failure of the current views towards mental health issues? We need an answer.
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