civilized ku # 150 ~ one time one night in America

Toppled pin and a shaft of sunlight • click to embiggenI had a hard time reading the local newspaper - the Philadelphia Inquirer - during our recent trip to south Jersey. To be frank, the news was very depressing - a murderous weekend with 5 deaths (2 victims were deemed to have been "in the wrong place at the wrong time") and 3 critically wounded, a house fire that killed 8 (including 3 children) low-income immigrants, business failures and closings, budget cuts that would close public libraries ... and the list of like-themed stories went on and on.

Unfortunately, stories like these are the daily fodder for newspapers all over this "great" land although, I must admit that here in the north country of New York State our newspapers are generally free of such stuff. I don't mean totally free but rather that much of the really nasty stuff of daily life in America's big cities and towns is noticeably less prevalent in our neck of the woods. That is especially so when it comes to violent crime against people.

That may be due in large part to the numbers game - a lot fewer people = a lot less crime - but a few years back, when we had a murder in a nearby county, the court had to bring in a temporary DA from the NYC area to prosecute it because no one in the area had any real experience with murder cases in that particular county (and many others around it).

In any event, during our trip, I was thinking to myself about how relatively safe and secure our life is here in the north country. So, you can imagine my surprise when, upon our return home and entering our house, I was greeted by coma-girl's best friend who asked, "Have you heard the town rumors?" It seems that rumors were flying about the murder-suicide which had occurred just down the street (our town is so small that everything is "just down the street") that very morning.

To say that the village was in a state of shock and confusion is a big understatement. Things like that just don't happen here. The couple involved (he killed her in her sleep and then killed himself) were long-time residents of exceedingly good standing in the community. They were involved in quite a number of local community activities (the food shelf, Xmas gift drive, etc.) as well as being foster parents to a number of children over the years. The couple have been described as "as close and loving, the type of people who would help anyone in need".

The husband, who retired a year ago from a prison job, called the State Police after killing his wife in order to tell them what he had done and was about to do (kill himself). He mentioned that he was calling to spare anyone the shock and trauma of having to unwittingly come upon the grisly scene - it seems that he was being his polite and caring self right to the end - and to "explain" why he was doing the act. He told dispatchers that he and his wife "had been distraught over personal family matters".

And there, as far as any public account goes, the matter rests.

However, as the wife and I have been informed (from someone on hand at the State Police station when the husband called), the distressing "personal family matters" that apparently triggered the event had their roots in a failure of the "American Dream" - the wife was having significant health problems and the medical bills were driving them to financial despair.

I can't begin to tell you how proud I am to be an American. A citizen of the richest country in the world that "rewards" and "honors" so many of its hardworking people with a life of fractured dreams and promises. A country in which the political class and so many of its citizens banter and squabble endlessly about "socialism" and "private sector" and "free market" as if it were a parlor game that has no effect on real people with real lives - especially so when it comes to the health and physical/mental well-being of so many of its citizens.

I am so proud to be counted amongst a so-called "Christian" citizenry who seems to care only for themselves and so little for "the least of these my brethren". A citizenry who cares little, as demonstrated by their collective actions, about anything other than being a contestant in the He Who Dies With The Most Toys Wins reality show.

Ah, yes - the real America. You betcha. Hey, just raise the flag and pass the ammunition.

One more light goes out in America:

A quiet voice is singing something to me
An age old song about the home of the brave
In this land here of the free
One time one night in America

People having so much faith
Die too soon while all the rest come late
We write a song that no one sings
On a cold black stone
Where a lasting peace will finally bring

The sunlight plays upon my windowpane
I wake up to a world that's still the same
My father said to be strong
And that a good man could never do wrong
In a dream I had last night in America

• ~ from the song One Night in America

Comments

[Don]

And downstate in Ulster county on New Years Eve a NYS trooper who retired this year killed himself and his wife.
It seems 2008 in America was full of distraught.

[Mike]

Dunno - on 1 Jan 1972 I came over to Austria with an Icelandic Airways return ticket to NYC/Idlewild/JFK. I have been back to the USA twice for a total of 4 weeks in the intervening years - once in 1979 and then again in 1990 when Bush I was ramping up to attack Iraq. When I got to Austria I was thoroughly damaged by the American Dream fallacy. Here I found that one got 4 weeks vacation (taken when and how one wished), over 10 public holidays and full health care - just walk into the hospital and a doctor will see you. This was Socialism and I thought: "What's so bad about being 'pink'"? I since realize I was very fortunate in coming here and leaving America and my USA upbringing behind. What I cannot understand is why so many less fortunate voters keep voting for the political moneyed elite. And it's happened again!! I read that the President Elect is staying in $20000/night quarters in DC. And this man is supposed to represent us? How many of us earn that much in a year??
Have a pleasant 2009. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.