At least 65 Dead and 97 Wounded: Mass Shootings 2012

It's a sad night that brings me back to this blog that I've missed so much.

There has been another mass shooting at a shopping mall. Made me wonder how numb I am to news stories like this or how many people I've dishonored by not working harder to fight for protection of the collective good from those who for whatever reason, hold all the rest of us responsible for their own misery.

I don't have any answers but I sure wish there was an easy one.

Here's what a quick search has turned up. It may or may not be a complete list:

January 10, 2012: Three teenagers were shot dead in an ambush in Philadelphia, CBS reported at the time. The 30-year-old suspect opened fire on four teens in a car, killing three and injuring one

 February 21, 2012: Jeong Soo Paek burst into a spa his family owned in Norcross, near Atlanta, Ga. He killed four relatives before turning the gun on himself

February 27, 2012: A 17-year-old student, T.J. Lane, confessed to going into his Chardon, Ohio high school cafeteria and shooting students at random. Three students died and two were hospitalized, The New York Times reported. Lane said he stole the gun from a relative who had obtained it legally.

March 30, 2012: A gunman drove by and opened fire on a crowd of mourners outside a funeral home in Miami, Fla. Two people died and 12 more were injured, the Miami Herald reported. The mourners were gathered for the funeral of 21-year-old Marvin Andre, who also died in a shooting.

April 2, 2012: One L. Goh opened fire at Oikos University in Oakland, California. He killed seven people and injured at least three more. Goh was a former student at the school and was said to be angry that he was expelled for poor behavior, CNN reported.

April 6, 2012: Five African-American men were gunned down in separate incidents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ABC reported. Police arrested Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, and said that the murders were motivated by racism. Three men died and two were seriously injured.

May 29, 2012: Ian Stawicki went to a cafe in Seattle's University district, shooting and killing four people, ABC reported at the time. He then fled to a parking lot and shot another woman before killing himself. He wasn't thought to have known his victims.

July 20, 2012: James Holmes, 24, allegedly broke into a midnight premiere of "The Dark Knigh Rises" in Aurora, Colo., killing 12 people and injuring roughly 60 more. Later, police revealed that Holmes, a doctoral student in neuroscience, spent $20,000 on ammunition and weapons.

August 5, 2012: Seven people died after gunfire broke out at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The gunman, identified by police as Wade Michael Page, also died in the shooting. He was a white supremacist and the shootings were said to be racially motivated.

August 13, 2012: Three people including a police officer were killed in shootings near the campus of Texas A&M University. The alleged shooter, Thomas Caffell, was said to be obsessed with video games and having financial problems. 

August 24, 2012: Jeffrey Johnson shot a former coworker and injured nine more people before being shot and killed by police. The shooting occurred near New York's Empire State Building during rush hour.  

September 27, 2012: The attack took place inside Accent Signage Systems, where a former employee walked inside the firm's building and fired shots. By the end of the day, five people were dead, including the gunman, who committed suicide, and four others were injured, three of them critically. One of those critically injured died the following day, and another man succumbed to his wounds on October 10. It was the deadliest workplace shooting in Minnesota's history 

October 21, 2012:  Police say three people were killed and four wounded in the Sunday morning shooting at the Azana Day Spa. Authorities spent much of Sunday afternoon looking for Haughton.They say they believe the shooting was related to a domestic dispute.The spa is a two-story, 9,000-square-foot building across from a major shopping mall in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee.

November 7, 2012: FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- A parolee who worked at a California chicken processing plant opened fire at the business on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding two others, before taking his own life, authorities said. 

December 11, 2012:  A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said.

 

My Response to Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington went on CNN yesterday and compared the media coverage of the Reverend Terry Jones and his planned burning of the Quran to the "balloon boy" incident earlier this year.

"It's a little bit like watching events unfold in an alternate universe that has nothing to do with what is really happening in this country, with the plight of the jobless, the people losing their homes," she said, comparing the situation to "balloon boy" Falcon Heene."

You can see the video here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-quran-burning-coverage-balloon-boy_b_711413.html

Unlike a lot of the commenter's over there at the Huffington Post who agree with her position on this, I'd like to take issue with it.

The Reverend Terry Jones wanting to burn the Quran is nothing like the balloon boy story and here's why.

When I first heard about the "Balloon Boy" it was while reading the Huffington Post. I believe it was at the top of your web page Arianna. I quickly ditched the computer and turned on the television where I sat glued to my seat, flipping between the news channels to watch the coverage.

I remember while watching, that it was ironically enough, Shepard Smith on FOX (FOX!!!) who raised the possibility that there was no child in that soaring contraption and he speculated that maybe the kid released the tethers that were keeping that thing tied to the earth and the kid was now hiding as kids have been known to do when they know they are going to be in big trouble.

As the story played out, Mr Smith came pretty close to the truth (it was the parents who it turned out that had played us all not Falcon Heene).

I choose to believe that we were all relieved that Falcon was not on board when that thing came crashing back to earth. but the story changed in record time. It became more of a story about the victimization of the media and how the media had been duped.

That would include you Arianna. A young child, as you proved with your comment on CNN became a grudge for you to hold. Well okay, maybe not a grudge but perhaps a standard that you now measure other stories against in an effort not to get sucked into over the top reporting of something that has no basis in reality.

I get that. I really do. As a news and politics junkie, I actually appreciate it. A loud mouth like myself has learned over time a little self filtering can be a good thing.

The balloon boys story came about because his eccentric father wanted a reality show (not unexpected given that your own Huffington Post and other media outlets have redefined success by giving so many narcissistic people who are willing to be famous anything and will do whatever it takes for themselves to remain that way).

Reverend Terry Jones is a completely different kettle of fish that should get media coverage. When you say his story has, "nothing to do with what is really happening in this country, with the plight of the jobless, the people losing their homes", I say baloney.

It has everything to do with it.

People are not getting jobs and losing their homes and all the other ills of our society is because the hatred in this country is rampant. The battle has become more important than whatever the goal was.

The haves hate the have not's. Politics, while always rough and tumble has become a blood sport turning neighbor against neighbor as the right hates the left. The employed hate the unemployed. Everybody it seems, hates the government and Wall Street overlooking that in our society both a necessary. I could go on and on but you get the idea.

The Reverend Terry Jones want to burn the Quaran for God's sake. The holiest of text to millions of people. Disgusting.

Reverend Jones stands for nothing more than pure hatred and he needs to have the media glare on him, exposing him as the skittering cockroach he is as he changes directions in an effort to avoid the light. Will he or won't he seems to be the question today.

More importantly, for our standing in the world, the media's light needs to be shone on all of us who don't agree with him. That he does not represent America.

That's the story that needs to be told over and over again if for no other reason than positive reinforcement for the masses.

But that probably wouldn't pay the bills would it Arianna?

This Land Is Your Land

Today I saw an article about a new Roseanne Cash album entitled The List.

You can read it here:

http://www.spinner.com/2009/10/08/rosanne-cash-keeps-the-rest-of-the-list-private?icid=mainhp-desktopdl2link4http%3A%2F%2F

The tracks on this album are songs that were on a list compiled by her Dad, Johnny Cash, of what he considered to be 100 essential country songs. She received this list when she turned 18 in 1973 and until this album was released she has never made any of the list public.

In the piece I was reading, she spoke about how hard it was to decide which songs to include on her album but clearly didn't have the same problem when deciding what songs she didn't value.

She said,"They were too gender specific or they were too much of a period piece, and I couldn't do another version of 'This Land Is Your Land.' You know what I mean?"

It's probably a really good thing I don't make my living as an interviewer.

Celebrities wouldn't like me very much.

Especially if they asked me a rhetorical question like:
"You know what I mean? "

If Roseanne Cash had asked me that question, I would have had to respond:

"No Roseanne, I don't know what you mean.

I look around and see my country, that I love, so ripped apart and polarized.

I think it would be a great idea for a singer/star of your caliber to record an album of songs that might make people stop and at least for a moment remember that we are all in this together.

You could invite artists of every kind to join you and call it

America Aid.

Instead gathering donations for one cause or another, you and others of such great talent could and should do it to lift the spirits of a weary nation."

Some 'period pieces' are timeless.


THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
words and music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

Chorus

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.