They wanted to eat breakfast at school

On January 4, one sixth grader was killed, seven students and staff members were injured, and the 17-year-old shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a high school in Perry, Iowa. The high school and middle schools in Perry share a building and are connected by a hallway adjacent to the cafeteria, where the shooting occurred. The cafeteria hosts a breakfast program for all middle and high school students before school.

The shooter’s weapons were a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun. Later, police found and disarmed a homemade bomb in his belongings found at the school.

ETA: It was just reported that the high school principal, Dan Marburger, who was shot in this event, died today, Sunday, January 14, as announced by his widow Elizabeth on a fundraising page created for her husband. The article I read also included this:

In a Facebook post on the night of the shooting, the principal’s daughter, Claire Marburger, called her father a “gentle giant” and said it wasn’t surprising that her father tried to protect his students.

“As I heard of a gunman, I instantly had a feeling my Dad would be a victim as he would put himself in harm’s way for the benefit of the kids and his staff,” his daughter wrote. “That’s just Dad.”

Marburger had been principal since 1995.

“That’s just Dad.” I haven’t stopped crying since reading this. I know my own father, who was both a high school teacher and an assistant principal after he retired from the Army, would have done what so many others on school administrations and staffs have done: sacrificed their own lives to try to save the lives of kids.

This is just not the way it should be, and I don’t understand how everyone in the country isn’t screaming for gun reform. Every country has criminals. Every country has psychologically and emotionally compromised individuals. But not every country has gun violence on this scale because they don’t have the number of guns in circulation, and certainly not the complete lack of regulation and oversight, that we have in the U.S.

Gun violence

In many cases on this blog, I’ve gone back through the years to post details of mass shootings in schools, places of worship, and other public locations in the U.S. I’ve tried to provide names of those involved (excluding the perpetrators), because I think it’s important that we recognize and remember those whose lives were cut short by gun violence in mass events.

It’s not only daunting to do the research, it takes an emotional toll on me. I greatly admire tireless gun reform advocates like Gabby Giffords, concerned citizens, parents, and former students who constantly push for awareness and real efforts to address this problem.

Here’s a look back at statistics from 2023 with only the barest of details and limited to schools and places of worship.

I got that information from a Wikipedia site that includes a much longer and more detailed chart you can review on that page, which details mass shootings at places along with schools and churches, including residences, public areas, and businesses. A total of 754 people were killed and 2,443 other people were injured in 604 shootings.

It’s overwhelming.

To pretend we don’t have an epidemic of gun violence in this country is the worst kind of hubris.

Mood: Monday


Rosalynn Carter
August 1927–November 2023

Robert Templeton, Iowa and Connecticut, USA
pastels, 1977
photo ©The National Gallery

The late Mrs. Carter lived a full and interesting life, and she had more influence and impact than some people may realize. I’ll always see her as a model of dignity, strength, and compassion. She was a true “steel magnolia,” and I love that her Secret Service tag was “Dancer.”

I’ve always had interest in the First Ladies of the United States. The photo below was taken by Barbara Kinney in 1994, shortly before First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died. It’s amazing to recall this many First Ladies were so alive and vibrant in the same time period.


First Ladies Nancy Reagan, Ladybird Johnson, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, and Barbara Bush.

Button Sunday

For good or ill, below is a list of November 19 trivia.
Courtesy of The History Calendar.

Today in History – November 19th

1493 – Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico, on his second voyage.
1805 – Lewis & Clark reached the Pacific Ocean –first European Americans to cross continent.
1850 – Alfred Tennyson became British Poet Laureate, succeeding William Wordsworth.
1861 – Julia Ward Howe wrote “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
1863 – President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address.
1893 – The first newspaper color supplement was published in the Sunday New York World.
1916 – Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn, one of the most successful independent film makers of all time.
1928 – TIME magazine published its cover in color for the first time.
1969 – Apollo 12 made man’s second landing on the moon.
1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to set foot in Israel on an official visit.
1980 – CBS TV banned Calvin Klein’s jean ad featuring Brooke Shields.
1985 – President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time.
1997 – Septuplets were born to Bobbi McCaughey. It was only the second known case where all seven were born alive.
1998 – The impeachment inquiry of President Bill Clinton began.
1998 – Vincent van Gogh’s “Portrait of the Artist without Beard” sold at auction for more than $71 million.
2001 – President George W. Bush signed the most comprehensive air security bill in the country’s history.
2002 – The U.S. government completed its takeover of security at 424 airports nationwide.
2003 – Eight competing designs for a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center were unveiled.

SCIENCE, INVENTIONS, PATENTS
1895 – The “paper pencil” was patented by Frederick E. Blaisdell.
1954 – Two automatic toll collectors were placed in service on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey.

MUSIC HISTORY
1968 – The Supremes performed at a Royal Variety Show with Queen Elizabeth in attendance.
1971 – B.B. King marked his 25th anniversary in music by opening a European tour in London.
1990 – Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy Award because other singers had lent their voices to the “Girl You Know It’s True” album.
1995 – Bruce Springsteen’s thirteenth album, “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” was released.
1996 – Prince released the 3-CD set “Emancipation.” The release was on his record label NPG Records.
1997 – The American premiere of Paul McCartney’s “Standing Stone” was played in Carnegie Hall by St. Luke’s Orchestra.
1998 -Motley Crue’s retail store, S’Crue, opened in Los Angeles.

FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS
James Garfield 1831
Tommy Dorsey 1905
Indira Gandhi 1917
Larry King 1933
Dick Cavett 1936
Ted Turner 1938
Calvin Klein 1942
Meg Ryan 1961
Jodie Foster 1962

Why?


Tom and I got our early voting done. Some people ask why, and if for no other reason, it’s a continued effort against cynicism. I might be a skeptic, but I hope never to be a cynic. Maybe the choice to hope is part of that.

A Google search on the difference between cynicism and skepticism:

While both skepticism and cynicism involve questioning assumptions and evaluating evidence, there are key differences between the two mindsets. Skeptics are open to new ideas and are willing to be convinced by evidence, while cynics tend to be closed-minded and mistrustful.

The way it ought to be

That’s a coloring book I picked up in September. I remember I mentioned a shopping trip that netted me some cool finds, and among those were several coloring books, though there’s a much more fun one I’ll share in the future.

Going into September, I knew that month, and October, and even a little of November, would deliver certain specific challenges. I’m a risk-averse person, so I like to assess what’s coming and its risks, then I practice risk management. This doesn’t mean I don’t take risks. I’ve taken plenty in my life. But there are thoughtless risks, and there are calculated risks. As I aged, there were far fewer thoughtless ones, and better-managed calculated risks. Maybe that’s called maturity, or maybe we just better disperse our energy on things with more appealing payoffs or things we have some degree of control over.

One thing we can never control, even if we fool ourselves otherwise, is the behavior of other people. When I manage risks, that’s always the X in any equation. However, if they are people with whom I have history, I factor in the range of their historical behaviors to include in my risk-taking/coping decisions.

Still, people can surprise me, and I mean that in both directions–good and bad. This is, to me, part of being human, and mostly the choices and behaviors of other people have almost nothing to do with me. They’re doing their own life math and risk assessment.

One of the things scheduled during these three months was Tim’s trip to Maine. Through the years, he’s chosen different seasons to visit his family and friends there, and as his parents have aged, one reason for him to go during fall is to help them prepare for winter. It’s good hard work, chopping, stacking, and storing wood and otherwise getting things in order around their home before winter, a season that’s no joke in Maine. I miss him when he’s gone, but I like these trips because he always returns with stories to tell, and he connects with friends who I’ve come to know and care about through him.

He left Tuesday. I’ve been working on sewing doll clothes for the past few weeks, and sometimes while I do that, I’ve been rewatching a TV series I enjoyed the first time I streamed it a dozen or so years ago (fun fact: people with anxiety tend to repeat experiences, whether re-reading a book, watching a favorite movie or TV show again, ordering the same thing off a menu, etc.). When people I love travel, I need distractions because travel equals risk, and it’s mostly risk beyond my control. And as people who know me well often do, Tim let me know he’d arrived safe and sound to his parents’ house. That meant when I shut down my laptop Tuesday night after finishing an episode, and put away all my sewing stuff, then went to bed, I fell asleep pretty easily.

Wednesday was a nice day with the dogs (including Tim’s and Debby’s, because she’s also traveling), sewing, light housekeeping and bill paying, doing my daily online things, and just taking it easy.

Then Jim texted me.

I’ll spare you the many texts that took place Wednesday night and all day and night today between Jim, Tim, Tom, and me. Tim and his family are okay, and by checking in on social media, I know that many of his friends who I interact with are okay, as well. While that gives me comfort, once again, the peace in cities and small towns has been shattered by gun violence.

I read recently that one in five people in the U.S. have had their lives negatively impacted in some way by guns. I paused to think about that, and within a few seconds, I was able to list these incidents: A woman who was a second mother to me took her life by shooting herself with a handgun. A boyfriend was held up at gunpoint in a store where we both worked. A friend mugged on a city sidewalk was told the mugger had a gun pointed at him. An acquaintance had an artificial leg because a gun went off at a party among high school friends and her leg was so badly shot it had to be amputated. Someone very close to me, a hunter who was always responsible with guns, once left his gun in the grass next to the car before he and his friends drove away. They went right back when he realized his mistake, but the gun was gone, and he never was able to locate its finder or know where it might end up or how it might be used. Someone I love more than words can ever adequately express called me just after dawn one morning to tell me he had a gun pointed to his head and wanted to talk to me before he pulled the trigger so I could tell him what I thought. I was able to persuade him to put the gun away by reminding him of the pain the first incident on this list caused me. I told him as long as the gun was out of my sight, I’d be in my car and with him in minutes. He promised to put the gun away and wait for me. He kept his promise; I kept mine; I didn’t lose a friend that day or any other day of his life because of suicide. I have another friend who accidentally fired her gun inside her house one day; thankfully, nothing but some property was damaged.

That’s seven bad gun stories from my life, and it took me a lot longer to record them here than to remember them. I know people who are gun enthusiasts and/or who own guns for protection. I’ve known many hunters who had shotguns and rifles, many businesses where a manager kept a gun behind the counter, many people whose lives involve a lot of driving, including at night, who travel with a gun next to them. I know people who open carry and conceal carry. I’ve known people in the military, bodyguards, and police who carried guns as part of their work.

I get it. Guns are part of the culture. But I’ll never understand why people think laws managing gun ownership violate their rights. I’ll never understand homes where children and strangers can easily find and use guns and create tragedies that could have been avoided with even basic risk management. And I’ll never understand why greed drives legislators to support private, unlimited, unregulated ownership of weapons meant for WAR, for hunting and killing HUMANS. I’ll never understand why the most specious use of words written in a different time, for different reasons, regarding very different weapons, uses as justification for owning weapons of war these words:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The National Guard fulfills the necessary WELL REGULATED militia, as it is staffed by We THE PEOPLE who want to serve in that capacity. They are citizen responders in times of crisis, and their mission is to serve and protect the public. Prohibiting citizens who are not in the National Guard, or the military, or on special teams in law enforcement, from owning weapons of war is not infringing on their rights. They still can own guns for protection, hobbies, hunting. Asking for responsible, accountable gun ownership is no different from any other thing we do to protect ourselves and one another (e.g., driving and traffic laws and requirements, swimming pool “attractive nuisance” requirements, food and drug standards and laws, maintaining adequate crowd control in parks, at events, in theaters, stadiums, and other venues). Sometimes our laws and standards are ignored or disobeyed, and the consequences can be deadly. But we don’t just give up. We impose fines and sanctions and shut down those who refuse to comply and protect the public. And if the people who have been elected or appointed to protect us choose instead to make themselves rich by exposing us to deadly risks, we vote them out or fire them. Or we should, particularly for the vulnerable.

Some facts about a population so many seem to care about from KFF: The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news

Firearms account for 20% of all child and teen deaths in the U.S., compared to an average of less than 2% of child and teen deaths in similarly large and wealthy nations.

The U.S. also has the highest rate of each type of child and teen firearm death-—suicides, assaults, and unintentional or undetermined intent—among similarly large and wealthy countries.

In 2021 in the U.S., the overall child and teen firearm assault rate was 3.9 per 100,000 children and teens. In the U.S., the overall suicide rate among children and teens was 3.8 per 100,000; and 1.8 per 100,000 child and teen suicide deaths were by firearms. In comparable countries, on average, the overall suicide rate is 2.8 per 100,000 children and teens, and 0.2 per 100,000 children and teens suicide deaths were by firearms.

These statistics point to the reality that we are failing to protect a vulnerable population among us, not only because of school shootings, but by a lack of managing the firearms we own, by allowing teens or people with mental illness easy access to firearm purchases, by not reporting lost or stolen weapons, and by failing to educate ourselves and our children about firearms. Education is not an infringement of rights, and the impact on families and society of ignorance is staggeringly tragic.

Tonight, my thoughts are on the dead and injured of the mass shooting in Lewiston and their families, and the residents of Lewiston, Bowdoin, Lisbon, and Auburn, some of those the towns where Tim’s family and friends live. Businesses and schools are closed, and residents have been asked to stay home and inside with their doors locked while law enforcement continues their search for the suspect.

I read comments from Mainers today that said, “This doesn’t happen in Maine,” and “People are nice here!” More murders occurred last night than is usual for an entire year in Maine. In 2000, our friend Steve C and I visited James in Portland–he still lives there–and drove into rural areas outside Portland, too. It’s true that Maine is a beautiful place with wonderful people. I’m so sorry the state is in the spotlight for this most terrible of reasons that connect it to other states and communities who understand all too well the trauma Mainers are suffering.

I started a coloring page in the book pictured at the top of this post, and I quickly realized that I was “comfort coloring.” I picked a beautiful place that looks like Maine. I immediately colored the dog, his bed, bowl, and bone and mentally called him “Striker,” the name of Jim’s late golden retriever who was one of the best dogs ever (it’s not only Jim who thinks so!). I made the grass as green as spring. I colored the porch floor gray, like the one at my grandfather’s house, because of so many happy memories there. I’ve already “silvered” the steam rising from the coffee cups, and the sun is bright in the sky and will rise over a place where only good things happen and people are, indeed, nice.

I can’t control all risk or fix all the problems that plague us. Sometimes the best I can do is find peace within my space and encourage others to do the same.

Mood: Monday

I previously published a photo of an art print on wood, date unknown, by artist Rebecca Puig, and titled Choose Peace.

Featured quotes on this art print include:

Make love not war
All we are saying is give peace a chance. – John Lennon
What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. – Mother Teresa
Teach Peace
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. – Mother Teresa
Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Health is the new wealth. Kindness is the new cool.
Peace begins with a smile.
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
Smile, breathe, & go slowly. – Thich Nhat Hanh
Shalom
Imagine all the people living life in peace. – Lennon
Breathe out peace.
If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbors. If there is to be peace between neighbors, there must be peace in the home. If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart. –Lao-tse
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.
Peace is our gift to each other.
People for peace
Peace is always beautiful. – Walt Whitman
Come Together
Each moment is a chance for us to make peace with the world. – Thich Nhat Hanh
Sky above earth, below peace within
The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of all kinds. – Dalai Lama
Paz
May you be well. May you be happy. May you be peaceful. May you be loved.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is no path to peace. Peace is the path. – Gandhi

the attack on reading

Now that I’m back, I’d wanted to post something yesterday about banned books. Last week was Banned Books Week. Though none of my published books have been banned to my knowledge, I’m sure at least some of them would go on a list of challenged books if any of the groups determined to police and suppress books were aware of them. That’s because all of them, whether written as Timothy James Beck or Cochrane/Lambert novels with my writing partners, or my own two contemporary romances, present a diverse set of characters, among them gay, lesbian, and transgendered folk, as well as characters of different races as part of the stories.

I follow an account on Instagram created by a musician who features banned and challenged children’s books. He might show some of their pages (if picture books), read brief excerpts, and describe what the books are about. Consistently, teachers respond to share how some of those books have been the ones their students most enjoyed because they learned new things or saw themselves or their situations represented. Other commenters ask why these interesting, funny, informative, or historically accurate stories are being challenged, and the answer is invariably the same: They feature characters who are different from what’s regarded as “mainstream,” whether because they are Black, Indigenous, reflect a non-white or first generation home or situation (for example, parents or grandparents are Asian or Hispanic), or whose lives are perceived as somehow “less than,” perhaps because of a one-parent home, or two of the parents are same sex (which means not only, for example, a gay couple, but even a dad and a stepdad, or mom and a step-mom). They may also feature stories set in periods of history or accurately including events that make people uncomfortable (e.g., school desegregation, World War II internment camps for Japanese Americans).

Groups of people who intend to limit what other people can read have placed themselves on school boards and in community groups, and are determined to get these books off the shelves of schools and public libraries. I agree with those who say, “You have every right to decide what YOUR CHILD can read, but absolutely NO RIGHT to decide that for the rest of us, whether as readers or parents and grandparents of readers. These groups’ methods are fear-mongering and perpetuating outright falsehoods on social media and in town hall meetings about children being forced to read age-inappropriate books. Of course, they don’t simply target children’s books, they also go after young adult books and books read by adults from college level and well beyond.

The books on my shelves and in my eBook shelves are full of titles I’ve read throughout my life deemed inappropriate and even dangerous. I’m grateful every day for the teachers who introduced me to books, librarians who found books for me, booksellers who recommended books, a kind minister who encouraged me to read by buying me children’s classics, and for my parents whose shelves were full of all kinds of books and who, rather than censoring my reading, turned my choices into opportunities for us to talk about books.

Historically… well…

Framed!

Frames were what I forgot to get on my shopping excursion the other day. Fortunately on another errand with Tom and Debby, I was able to pick up a couple. I needed them for prints I received from Laurel Storey. Longtime readers might remember Laurel from LiveJournal, which is where I likely became acquainted with her through ‘Nathan and Dan (all in Canada, and I suspect their original connection might have been BookCrossing). Later, I followed Laurel on her blog Alphabet Salad, where I think she stopped writing around 2017, but by then, we’d connected via her Instagram, where we still interact. I like keeping up with all the adventures she and her husband enjoy (trips, music, art, restaurants, Lego® kits, photography, desserts, cats!).

I’m not sure when Laurel began pursuing her interest in Zentangle (quick explanation: the Zentangle Method allows an artist to create images using structured patterns, called tangles, by combining dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves, and orbs). Laurel is now a certified Zentangle teacher, who teaches and exhibits her art at the Walkerville Artists Collective Gallery in Windsor, Ontario.

This work is in the public domain.

No surprise that Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings, including this one from 1888, are among my favorites of his work, since I not only appreciate his art, I’m also a fan of sunflowers. I was delighted to see a Zentangle piece created by Laurel that was inspired by the Van Gogh painting, and I ordered a print.

 


(Sorry for the reflections you can see in the glass.)

When I received my order, she’d generously included another print that I also framed.

Here’s a bonus photo from Laurel’s Instagram of the crosswalk outside the gallery this past August to celebrate Pride. Pride Month comes again in June, but another significant date coming up on October 11 is National Coming Out Day, so it’s a good time to share this. I’m always happy to join other allies like Laurel in support of LGBTQ+ equality.

©Laurel Storey, 2023

Here are the two prints hanging over one of the windows in the office at Houndstooth Hall.

Thank you, Laurel!

Tiny Tuesday!

My newest action figure from FCTRY: ZELENSKY.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. Born to a Ukrainian Jewish family, Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine.
Born: January 25, 1978 (age 45 years)

Source: Wikipedia

Backdrop photo: April 2022 ©Joseph O. Holmes of original sticker art on wall by brooklynbitchbakery.