My family back home worries for me a lot and their worry was heightened especially in April when about 54 people were killed that month alone from gunshots, including in the senseless slaying in New York of 14 people at an immigration center: http://www.rushmoredrive.com/LatestNews/Binghamton_Shooting_Update_14_Dead_at_Immigration_Center.aspx?ArticleId=14711465047545925920. Like me, most of the victims were recent arrivals in America.
My family must have worried too at the news on Wednesday of the killing of a black security guard, Stephen Johns by an 88-year-old white supremacist at a Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. I once visited that museum and, at the back of my mind I shudder to think, by chance, would it have been me if I was at the wrong place at the wrong time? I share the family's pain:http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=13934910.
The old white supremacist carried his gun into the museum—and along with that was his hate for Jews and black people, any black person. The irony is that the black man killed, Stephen Johns—said by family and friends to be a kind man—had opened the door and held it for the 88-year-old. His act of kindness was repaid by a bullet in the heart: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090612/ap_on_re_us/us_holocaust_museum_shooting_guard.
Does that make me uncomfortable living here? Of course my family worries but I live an insulated life here, largely because Norman is a university town and with it comes the benefits of a cosmopolitan existence. But it still begs the question why an 88-year-old could still harbor so much bigotry and hate and racism to want to do such a despicable act?
I am closely watching the coverage of this killing in the media. So far, it has been muted. I was expecting a torrent of outrage, especially against the known white supremacist groups this killer was a member of. So far, I have been disappointed.
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ReplyDeleteI feel that this situation is possible in any country though. I understand the fear and what you are saying, but the bottom line is that there are crazy people everywhere and there are prejudice people everywhere. Anybody could be at the wrong place at the wrong time in many cases. Unfortunately, there are people that are crazy enough to kill somebody based on their color or beliefs or even lifestyles. I hope that we see the change that needs to happen so that your family doesn't have to worry about you just because of your skin color. I understand that there will always be worries because like you said sometimes people are in the wrong place at the wrong time, but people killing one another due to race is ignorant.
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