I do love me some good irony in a headline
From WKRN.com today: “Less Schools Failing Under ‘No Child Left Behind’, state says”
(I reproduced the wording and punctuation of this headline exactly as it appears on the site at 11:03 am. Maybe they’ll get it fixed by the time you click on the link…)
Another Unitarian
Obviously, Unitarian Universalism is in the news this week for some very terrible reasons, but I also notice that a very well known UU died this week - and his death was as meaningful and joyful as any of us could ever hope for ourselves.
Randy Pausch, the author of the inspirational “Last Lecture,” was a very active UU.
PHOTOBLOGGING: Red door
Photo by Shane and Ruth.
Local Talk Radio
I’ve been listening to our local newstalk station, WNOX 990 some in the past few days, trying to get some sense of that audience’s reaction to the terrible TVUU church shooting.
On yesterday afternoon’s show, I heard Catherine Howell ask a fair, difficult and important question. She said (and I paraphrase): Do those of us who do right wing talk radio bear some responsibility for this crime?
First of all, I was a bit shocked to hear her describe herself (and maybe she just misspoke) as “right wing.” She is the station’s primary straight news reporter, so for her to openly state her political bent like that was a little surprising.
But I appreciated her asking the question.
I then heard caller after caller extol the virtues of talk radio, and deny that it had any responsibility for fanning the flames of intolerance for “the liberal movement” (Anybody else wondering exactly what that is?)
Then this morning I listened to some of the Hallerin Hill show with my mouth hanging open, as the great majority of callers complained that this terrible act might be classified as a hate crime.
All crime is hate, one woman opined. If you covet your neighbor’s possessions, that is hate, ergo, there is no such thing as a hate crime.
The idea that hate crimes are not a real, distinct, particularly heinous type of criminal act is especially disturbing in post 9-11 America, where we should be even more grateful for and protective of our liberties. As that bastion of liberal philisophy, the FBI points out, “groups that preach hatred and intolerance plant the seeds of terrorism here in our country.”
I finally had to turn the radio off after the call in which a man literally said that the UU church was “reaping what it sowed.”
Yes, he actually said this.
And Mr. Hill - on a day when our neighbors will be preparing to bury their murdered family members - did not step in to disagree with the man. That was a great disappointment to me.
Church attack victim issues statement
From Allison Lee this afternoon:
I read in yesterday’s newspaper (Sunday Knoxville News Sentinel) that a woman was “trampled” during the shooting yesterday at the Unitarian Church. I believe that refers mistakenly to me. I want to be clear that I was not “trampled.” I heard the blast, saw the man with the gun and saw a woman behind us collapse, bleeding. I threw myself and my daughters on the floor and we crawled as fast as we could to the exit then outside. It was only after the police arrived that I realized I could not walk. At the hospital thay said I broke my kneecap, probably while crawling frantically. But nobody in the church stepped on me or over me. It was quite the opposite. Many people, several in particular, were extremely helpful to my daughters and me, even though we were just visiting that day to see the children’s show and are not members of the church.
PTSD
One of the victims of the church shooting is headed home from the hospital today with a very serious eye injury, as well as a re-emergence of symptoms from his past:
John Worth suffers from post traumatic stress after serving in Vietnam, and according to Joy, her husband is once again exhibiting signs.
“He’s very jumpy,” she said. “But he’s had a heart attack. We’ve been through a lot and we’ll get through this, too.”
My prayers are with the Worth family. I suspect many of those who were in that sanctuary yesterday morning will be struggling with post traumatic stress disorder issues for a long time to come, particularly the children who were facing the gunman as he entered the room.
How they heard
The husband of one of the injured victims in Sunday’s TVUUC shooting heard about the incident from a Dutch newspaper he read in Brazil, where he’s doing research:
Allison Lee and her daughters were sitting near 61-year-old Linda Kraeger, who was killed in the attack. J.D. Lee says his six-year-old granddaughter was splattered with blood in the attack.
J.D. Lee said he learned of the shooting from a friend in Philadelphia who called him as he sat in church.
Allison Lee grew up in Monroe County, and attended Webb School of Knoxville. She has her own law practice in Arizona, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona.
She is resting at her father’s home Monday, while her children are spending time at the Knoxville Zoo. She will fly back to Tucson on Wednesday, and will have surgery there.
Allison Lee’s husband is a a scientist currently working on his doctoral thesis, doing research on global warming in Brazil. He read about the Knoxville church shooting in a Dutch newspaper, and called her to check on his wife. He is flying to Arizona to be with her.
Our community’s worst fears confirmed
KPD Chief Owen has just confirmed that it appears the suspect in yesterday’s fatal church attack was, in fact, targeting the good people of the TVUUC because of their religious and political beliefs.
No matter what YOUR religious or political beliefs happen to be, we must all stand together as Knoxvillians united during this terrible time, and as they declare in their liturgy each Sunday at every Unitarian Universalist church:
Let people living in all lands
Declare that fear and hate are done.
Rise above differences and stand
In love and understanding, one.
Let us work together as a community to turn this tragedy into an enhanced dialogue for peace and justice that crosses social and belief boundaries. We owe that to the brave victims of this brutal attack, as well as to the heroes - yes real HEROES - who tackled the shooter and saved dozens of others.
.
Commenting on the TVUUC attack
Knoxville News Sentinel online guru Jack Lail ponders how to handle the most offensive comments that end up on news sites after a tragedy like yesterday’s church shooting.
My publisher sent me several emails over the weekend about complaints about hateful, invective, acidic and just generally mean-spirited reader comments on our newspaper Web sites.
And the comments in question met all those tests - and then some. They had already been removed for the most part after being flagged by users. But one thinks publishers have better ways to spend Saturday nights? Sort of emphasizes the scope of the problem.
While the emails he received were about specific comments, questions are being raised anew about newspaper comments in general, one of the recurring (Oh, not that again) debates on journalism blogs.
Fox blogs Knox
Fox reporter Jonathan Serrie is doing some blogging on the church shootings from Knoxville.
Bratton vs. Sisk
LVG breaks the race down, declaring it a contest between the “devil you know” and the one you don’t.
Suffice it to say…
…that I am exhausted tonight - mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Covering this story today was very difficult for me, but it really only hit me with full force after I left the newsroom and came home.
As a longtime, on-and off-again attendee of the church, I’ve spent many hours in that peaceful sanctuary with that group of remarkably loving, kind people. And I have numerous friends - dozens - who are members.
I am so struck by the stark bravery of the men who tackled the gunmen and held him until police arrived. I keep asking myself whether I - faced with the same situation - would have been courageous enough to do what they did. It’s a question I cannot answer.
My prayers are with the congregation, the families of the victims, and with Rev. Chris Buice, who must now minister to his wounded congregation as they make their way through this terrible time - a situation he likely never envisioned in his worst nightmares.
Sexual temptation and purity
The Parkridge neighborhood, one of the wonderful historic East Knoxville communities now experiencing a renaissance, was the subject of a prostitution sting last week. Residents were thrilled, as they have been actively working with KPD to try to get the johns trolling their neighborhood to go away.
The names and addresses of those arrested for solicitation have been posted on the Parkridge neighborhood e-mail list, and in an amusing twist, one of the men’s occupation is “a counselor for “Christian Accountability Groups for Men Struggling with Sexual Temptation and
Purity”
You can’t make this stuff up.
Perhaps my journalistic sensibilities are too delicate…
…but this is not a headline I would have written, or published.
I understand that Coach Fulmer said that, and that he needs to be quoted accurately within the body of the story, but I wouldn’t have put that word - which many folks find offensive - in the headline. In fact, I was pretty shocked to see it.
Your thoughts?
Going straight to the source
From Legal Times:
High Court Justices Go Digital to Access Founding-Era Documents
U.S. Supreme Court justices on both sides in the landmark D.C. v.
Heller gun rights case resorted to original documents in making their
case about the meaning of the Second Amendment. But they used a
little-known digital resource to get there, a project whose mission is
to digitize thousands of Founding-era documents that shed light on the
original meaning of the Constitution.The Constitutional Sources Project, which launched publicly last
September, has digitized and made freely available online more than
11,000 historical documents relating to the Constitution and the
amendments. Among them are at least 20 documents cited by majority and
dissenting opinions in Heller, says the project’s co-founder and
executive director Lorianne Updike.“We were very pleased to be a resource for the highest court in the
land,” Updike says.
Jimmy Duncan disagrees with Bill Hobbs
From the AP:
U.S. Rep. John “Jimmy” Duncan Jr. says barring news media from the annual state Republican fundraising dinner featuring former top White House adviser Karl Rove is “ridiculous.”
State GOP spokesman Bill Hobbs says the “Statesmen’s Dinner” in Nashville on Saturday is no different than other political fundraisers, which “are typically not open to the public.”
But Duncan, an 11-term Republican congressman from Knoxville, says events of this type have always been open to the media and always should be.
Duncan — a former judge who holds a law degree from George Washington University and a journalism degree from the University of Tennessee — says he hopes “whoever made this decision reverses it and opens this event to any member of the media who wishes to come.”
Cornholin’ in Knoxville
Catch the Knoxville cornhole fever.
Heh.
Neighborhoods and free swag
They are running a great contest with FREE STUFF over at Knoxify. Go check it out and enter!
PHOTOBLOGGING: Back when local politics used to be more civil
Pat Summitt sez…
Pat Summitt’s notably candid remarks about the Candace Parker-WNBA brawl:
Summitt, in Nashville on Thursday night for the UT All-Sports Picnic at Lipscomb, was New Orleans watching an AAU tournament when she got a text message about the WNBA incident.
Later she watched a taped replay. Her reaction: “I have never seen anything like it.”
Summitt wasn’t surprised about Parker’s reaction.
“When you are as fierce a competitor as Candace Parker you automatically stand up for what’s right. I am not surprised on how she reacted. ? Let’s face it, women are competitive just like men,” Summitt told The Tennessean.
