Last night, while at Mass, our deacon included in the prayers of the faithful "the shooting victims in Tucson." I remember scrunching my face up and looking over at Moose and saying, "must have been some more trouble at the border. Maybe Deacon should throw El Paso in there too, cause there's alway some kind of murder going on down there too."
Then we get home and i see the news.
It's insane! It's completely incomprehensible to me. I grew up in Tucson, and i don't remember it being anything like this!! Most people there were just laid back and somewhat friendly.
And the more i here about Arizona itself, i can't believe it could change that much since we left about 15 years ago. I never knew we had a racial problem down there...the part of town i grew up in there were only about 15 gringo kids for every 100 hispanic kids. Before we left, grocery clerks would greet everyone, no matter the skin colour, in Spanish. I thought the last place on Earth that would pass a law requiring people carry papers would be AZ. Leave that wacked out business to UT or ID.
And now to see a mass shooting, driven by political idiology, killing innocents like a 9 year old girl, a federal judge, and 3 retirees. If you'd like to read more about their stories, please visit the Arizona Daily Star. It's the "horse's mouth" so to speak, being Tucson's daily morning newspaper.
I have to concur with Sherrif Dupnik (man, he's been around a long time--since i was just a tot!) when he said, "The bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona, I think, has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
Sure it's not a slogan the board of tourism can use, but sometimes the truth hurts.
My family was stationed with the Air Force at Luke in Phoenix for most of the late 80s and I absolutely fell in love with the state - people were friendly, my children's (whose father is Hispanic) were treated well.... I've spent years telling people how much I loved it and that I hoped to return one day... and have come to realize that the Arizona I loved no longer exists. I would not subject myself or my family to what's taken its place. It's very sad to lose a place you knew as home.
ReplyDeleteThe sheriff was dead on correct.
Saddness doth prevail.
ReplyDeleteLinda
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