Thursday, December 06, 2007
"Now I'll Be Famous"
Tragic news came from my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska yesterday, when a gunman killed 8 people, wounded 5 others, and then took his own life. The crime took place at the Westroads Mall, a place where I spent quite a bit of my life growing up. In fact, it was where I purchased Therese's wedding ring. The killer wrote in his suicide note "Now I'll be famous." We in the U.S. certainly live in a very violent and sick society. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and everyone in the Omaha community.
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4 comments:
Sadly, what happened in Omaha is not surprising although it certainly is tragic. It's telling when this stuff comes on the news and I don't even raise an eyebrow anymore. Instead it's: "Oh, how many dead *this* time? :(
Not to change the subject but...
I know someone affected by the NW floods who has a couple feet of water in their home. No flood insurance. Do you have any advice on the course of action they should take. Any advice at all? Thanks!
I thought about you when I saw it happened in Omaha. Awful.
Unfortunately the name of the cities change but the tragedy remains the same.
I wonder what we're doing to create these people and what we're not doing to find them soon enough.
Greetings from your old stomping grounds, where it's been a tough, tough past seven days.
Westroads has become a giant memorial, both inside the mall and outside the Von Maur entrance where He Who Must Not Be Named (at least not anymore, unless absolutely necessary) walked in. When the mall reopened Saturday, it was fairly crowded, being that a routine shopping trip now has become an official act of defiance.
My wife and I visited the memorials, and I bought a remote control. Just because.
Oddly enough, back in 1988, I made the opposite move you did. I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, went to LSU, took some time off in '83 to take a newspaper job in North Platte because it was far away and really different, fell in love with Nebraska, fell in love with my wire editor, married my wire editor, went back to LSU to finish my BAJ, graduated, moved around some (including back to BR to work at the State-Times) then moved back to Omaha (my wife's hometown) for good.
Well, that last sentence almost was Faulkneresque. . . .
ANYWAY, if you're interested, I blogged the sorry events of the last week at http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/.
BTW, have you kept up with the whole Omaha punk scene, including the emergence of "tractor punk" the past 15 years or so?
If not, you really, REALLY need to check out the Monroes on Speed! Nebraska Records.
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