JERRY WOLKOFF BLOG-IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY SON STEVEN NATHANIEL WOLKOFF, MY FATHER SAMUEL WOLKOFF, AND ALL THE OTHER VICTIMS OF INJUSTICE, EVIL IN THIS WORLD.THEY DIMINISH YOUR RIGHTS,THEN THEY DIMINISH YOUR EXISTENCE, THEN THEY LIE ABOUT IT, SAY YOU NEVER EXISTED, AND THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE FORGET THE SUFFERING THAT LASTS FOREVER, NEVER KNOWING THE TRUTH BY WHOSE HANDS, OR HOW YOU WERE KILLED.
Everyone forgets the dead victims in tragedies, except those who loved them. As I stated in my previous post, so far there are nine innocent human beings who died in the Umpqua (native indian translation is "thundering waters") Community College massacre ranging in age from 18 to 67: Lucero Alcaraz, 19 Rebecka Ann Carnes,18;Jason Dale Johnson, 33;Quinn Glen Cooper, 18;Treven Taylor Anspach, 20;Lucas Eibel, 18;Lawrence Levine, 67; Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59;and Sarena Dawn Moore, 44. They all had dreams, aspirations, goals to be the very best they could in life, now none of what they hoped for will ever come true for them and their families. These dead human beings are the sons, daughters, father's, mother's, relatives, friends, lovers, and innocent victims whose lives have been stolen forever from them and those who loved them.
Lucero Alcaraz, 19
She hadn’t picked a major yet, but was hoping to become a nurse or a pediatrician.
Rebecka Carnes, 18
Carnes’ cousin, Lisa Crawford, posted a message on her Facebook account, calling Carnes “vibrant” and said she was “loved fiercely.”According to the post, Carnes has just started school and a new job.
Jason Johnson, 33
Johnson’s mother, Tonja Johnson Engel told NBC Newsher son had just started classes on Monday.
“He started Monday and he was so proud of what he had accomplished and rightly so,” she said. “The other day he looked at me and hugged me and said, ‘Mom, how long have you been waiting for one of your kids to go to college?’ and I said, “Oh, about 20 years.”
Quinn Cooper, 18
Cooper was originally from Roseburg. He had graduated from high school in June and died on his fourth day in college, according to a statement from his family.
“Quinn was funny, sweet, compassionate, and such a wonderful, loving person,” the statement added.
Cooper had been planning to take his brown belt test next week, and also enjoyed voice acting and dancing, according to the statement.
“I don’t know how we are going to move forward with our lives without Quinn,” the statement added. “Our lives are shattered beyond repair.”
Treven Anspach, 20
Anspach’s family described him as a “one of the most positive young men, always looking for the best in life,” and as “a perfect son.”
The 20-year-old was from Sutherlin, Oregon.
Lucas Eibel, 18
According to a statement from his family, Eibel volunteered at a local wild animal park and at an animal shelter. He had graduated from Roseburg High School with “high academic marks” and received a scholarship.
Eibel was studying chemistry.
“We have tried to figure out how to tell everyone how amazing Lucas was, but that would take 18 years,” the family statement added.
Lawrence Levine, 67
Levine, 67, taught at Umpqua Community College, authorities said Friday. He lived in Glide, Oregon.
His Facebook page include a photo of him fly fishing, and he appears to have written for a fishing organization. In one entry described diving into the river near his home.
“As I gazed into the depths, I saw my shadow and rays of light emanating around my silhouette,” Levine wrote in 2013. “The light danced to the rhythm of the breeze on the water; it was all in one and magical, and that was what I dove into.”
Kim Dietz, 59
Dietz was 59-years-old. She lived in Roseburg. According to a post on Facebook, Roseburg had worked as a caretaker at an Oregon vineyard and had a daughter who attended Umpqua Community College.
Sarena Moore, 44
Moore, 44, lived in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, authorities said Friday.
According to Moore’s Facebook page, she attended Reno High School and worked for the Oregon Conference of Seventh Day Adventists.
Countless others have been wounded both physically and emotionally.
These people above are the most important realities to remember as those who loved them will never see, talk, or touch them ever again.
Unless you have lost a loved one to violence as they and I have, do not even try to imagine what these people are feeling. It is beyond your comprehension to walk in their shoes.
As always, there are these ironic, side stories that pop up, in particular the ones about the law enforcement community whose sworn job is to fairly enforce the laws, treat the dead with compassion, and above all to be honest in doing their jobs.
Now that this massacre is in his jurisdiction, I wonder how the Sheriff feels about his ignorant prejudiced statements re "actors hired by the Federal government that were part of the Sandy Hook Massacre as part of a conspiracy".
No wonder he immediately tried to hide it by deleting his post off of Face Book about "the conspiracy", after all, these are now his dead friends, his community, and it really happened.
It is so easy to pontificate about the violent death of others that you don't know, but when he saw this happen in his Town, one of the first things he thought of doing was to protect his own ass by removing the stupidly, moronic Face Book post.
Good job Sheriff, your a real piece of work, little children in Connecticut murdered along with Twin Towers human beings supposedly murdered by the government, but now when it hits you in the face, run to erase your ignorant mumbling.
Am I pissed at him, yes, because to those such as him, it never is about the victims who have died, it always is about the politics, egos, protecting ones job, and saving face of those who are so cruel as to judge others who have suffered tragedies.
As the national debate over gun control raged online after themass shootingat Umpqua Community College on Thursday, comments on the subject posted on Facebook by Sheriff John Hanlin of Douglas County, whose force responded to the latest rampage, came under scrutiny.
The sheriff, who has made no secret ofhis strident opposition to tougher gun laws, made his views clear ina letter to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.posted on his department’s Facebook page on Jan. 16, 2013, after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Mr. Hanlin urged the vice president to treat his letter as “a formal request that you NOT tamper with or attempt to amend” the Second Amendment.
“Gun control is NOT the answer to preventing heinous crimes like school shootings,” he wrote, adding that efforts to restrict gun ownership “would be irresponsible and an indisputable insult to the American people.”
The sheriff also warned the vice president that “any federal regulation enacted by Congress or by executive order of the president offending the constitutional rights of my citizens shall not be enforced by me or by my deputies, nor will I permit the enforcement of any unconstitutional regulations or orders by federal officers within the borders of Douglas County Oregon.” Ok, he's entitled to his views on gun control but......
Three days before that letter was released, Mr. Hanlin shared a link onhis personal Facebook pagetoa YouTube video, which suggested that the shootings at Sandy Hook and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 might have been staged by the federal government to provide a pretext for “disarming the public” through gun control legislation. In a comment imploring his Facebook friends to watch that video, whose producer claims that the parents of children “allegedly shot” at Sandy Hook were actors, the sheriff wrote, “This makes me wonder who we can trust anymore.
A screenshot from the Facebook page of Sheriff John Hanlin
Shame on Mr. Hanlin, trying to score points on the unknown innocent dead with his complete indifference of a fantasy tale, now he sees real mass killings in his own backyard.
This is what Americans do, distancing themselves from ugly reality by weaving their webs of self denial, indifference, that tragedies happen only to others, and will not visit them with the horrors of killings. The "safety bubble' of "not here where I live", and "it's a government conspiracy killing people elsewhere", doesn't work any longer to protect us.
Perhaps, but I doubt it, he and others will learnsome humility that the innocent dead in his town are precioushuman beings, just as those he casually dismissed in other town's killings as somehow being actors conspiring to fake the horrific losses of those they loved. Where will the next mass murder happen, and it will, seemingly out of nowhere,the cycle will continue because we refuse to do anything serious to stop it.
There are countless additional wounded victims as well shout by this monster.
The familiar usual arguments for and against gun control laws, hand wringing by politicians, endless, now ritualistic blood feasting by the media, buzzing social media arguments, vigils, and soon the funerals.
The media response is routine.
Whoever is the President gives the same speech,
The politicians tweet their condolences,
The Nation feels helpless, very numb after so many similar mass killings.
Politicians give the same answers because the debate hasn't changed in all these years. It's politicians who blame the guns, versus politicians who blame everything but the guns.
We the people agree it's a terrible thing, we all send our thoughts and prayers, and we all salute the ordinary people who step up and who become heroes.
Truthfully, most of us should be ashamed that when we first saw the latest initial news on this shooting, we didn't have the sense of shock that all of us used to have.
I felt sadness, but no surprise. Even worse, and I hate admitting this too, I couldn't feel outrage. Because what's the point of raging against what always turns out to be some form of lunacy and is now a "normal" occurrence.
Social media is filled with intellectual arguments, rhetoric, and the usual meaningless words.
Politicizing these killings to further agendas of pro and anti gun laws that polarize will not stop the killings. I am not sure what will reduce the carnage but the shooters do not live in a vacuum, they are visible.
I do know that their visibility seen by friends, family, neighbors of the person who snaps can, if recognized, and confronted can potentially stop these massacres. They have to connect the dots, the anger, the rants, online postings, the collecting of weapons and then do something.
Otherwise, all that's left is to say to ourselves, "Well, at least it isn't my family or someone I know."
Just like we said a few weeks ago, and a few weeks before that, and it's what we will say a few weeks from now.
