Perspective: Senseless Shootings in Kirkwood, MO
What were you doing last Thursday evening at 7PM? An ordinary night probably for most of us ordinary people.
There was a city council meeting at the Kirkwood, Missouri City Hall, A zoning meeting. Ordinary stuff. And then something far out of the ordinary, something mind numbing happened in a town that describes itself as “where community and spirit meet.”
A gunman who had recently lost a lawsuit against the city of Kirkwood who had banned him from speaking at city council meetings, opened fire, killing five people before he was shot to death. The mayor, Mike Swoboda was wounded and is in critical condition. Suburban Journal reporter Todd Smith was shot in the hand.
Those killed were Police Officer William Biggs, Police Officer Tom Ballman, Councilwoman Connie Karr, Councilman Mike Lynch and Public Works Director Kenneth Yost. I didn’t know any of them but I would imagine they were not expecting that on February 7th that they had a rendezvous with death.
Officer Biggs was on his way to get a pizza when he crossed paths with the shooter. One minute he was probably thinking ordinary pizza thoughts as he headed to IMO’s. The next minute he was gunned down but managed the extraordinary as he died; he pushed the alert button on his radio and probably saved many lives in the community of Kirkwood.
Officer Biggs died a hero; no doubt those who knew him and loved him and miss him would have preferred that he had lived an ordinary Kirkwood police officer.
We live in a town that borders Kirkwood. My sister raised her family there and her daughter, my niece, lives there now. Kirkwood IS a community. A community that does not Bowl Alone but seems to personify the currency of social capital: trust, community, involvement, neighbors, belonging. Kirkwood has annual festivals and a hundred year old football rivalry with neighboring Webster Groves that is the subject of a recent book, The Turkey Day Game.
As I read about the lives of those gunned down, they stood in stark, tragic contrast to the shooter who seemed to believe that the community was against him and that he was “at war” with Kirkwood.
According to his brother, he left a “suicide note” stating “the truth will come out in the end.”
The truth as I see it is captured by the words of the Deputy Mayor Thomas Griffin as reported in the New York Times : “This is a tragedy of untold magnitude.”
Earlier today I had to run a quick errand to Ace Hardware, just across Manchester less than a mile from home. My mother asked me to get her some lunch at the Daily Bread.
As I walked to my car I noticed a number of people walking across the parking lot towards Manchester. Then I noticed car lights; finally realizing as I got to my car that there were hundred of police cars from all over the city driving in a procession down Manchester Road.
I sat in my car for over a half an hour, traffic halted in every direction as the funeral procession for Officer Thomas F. Ballman drove from his home in Ballwin to Kirkwood City Park. I used my Blackberry camera to take the picture above. It was something to see….
Bob McCarty Writes has photos on Fickr of “the sights and sounds of Kirkwood the morning after the shooting.”
Discrimination at SIU????
The Chicago
Sun-Times reported that the Justice Department has accused SIU (Southern
Illinois University) violating the Federal Civil Rights laws (Title VII) by
discriminating against whites, men and others in their graduate fellowship
programs. The programs cited were:
FELLOWSHIP: Bridge to the Doctorate Started:
2004 Award: $30,000 stipend, plus $10,500 for education expenses Purpose: "For
underrepresented minority students to initiate graduate study in science,
technology, engineering and math.” Budget: $985,000 Number of awards since
inception: 24 (19 blacks, 5 Latino, 1 Native American)
FELLOWSHIP: Proactive
Recruitment and Multicultural Professionals for Tomorrow Started: 2000 Award:
Tuition waiver and $1,200 monthly stipend Purpose: "To increase the number of
minorities receiving advanced degrees in disciplines in which they are
underrepresented.” Budget: $158,000 Awards since inception: 78 (61 blacks, 14
Latinos, 1 Asian, 2 Native Americans)
FELLOWSHIP: Graduate Dean’s Started: 2000
Award: Tuition waiver, $1,000 monthly stipend Purpose: "For women and and
traditionally underrepresented students who have overcome social, cultural or
economic conditions.” Budget: $67,000 Awards since inception: 27 (16 whites, 7
blacks, 4 Latinos) SOURCE: Southern Illinois University
Well, yes to qualify for
these programs one must be a minority, or traditionally underrepresented but
don’t almost all fellowship or scholarship programs at every university have
requirements that by definition exclude someone? When I applied for a graduate
program at Washington University George Warren Brown School of Social Work in
2002 I was given a packet of information that included a long list of
scholarship programs.
My recollection is that most of them had specific targets
that included everything from academic performance, math majors entering social
work, those currently employed in the non-profit sector, non-traditional
students (i.e. older than faculty) to "traditional" minorities and the
underrepresented. Didn’t the GI bill require military service and by applying the
standards that the Justice department is apparently apply to SIU, thereby
discriminate against those unable to serve in the military.
I found it interesting that Small Town Veteran writes, "I myself dropped out of the University of Illinois after two
years due to financial problems, at the same time as hundreds of
Chicago blacks were receiving a free ride just for being black, and
enlisted in the Air Force hoping I’d still be around in 4 years to use
my GI Bill benefits."
Again, aren’t those GI Bill benefits limited to those who served in the military? Certainly those serving in the military deserve the GI Bill benefits but the benefits do exclude those who were not able to serve in the military but may have wanted to.
As The
Color Blind Society notes, it is hard to write, "SIU puts whites and men at
a disadvantage" with a straight face. I presume that these three fellowships are not the only fellowships or scholarships being offered by SIU. It is reported that minorities make up 8% of the student body at SIU (92% of the population are not minorities!?!) which I believe would indicate that despite the three fellowship programs that the "playing field" is far from level and that it would be hard to support that "discrimination" is preventing whites and men from attending SIU.
Technorati Tags: SIU, Discrimination, Fellowships, Scholarships
Rosa Parks
I don’t know exactly when I first heard about Rosa Parks but I do know if I
were asked to define bravery or courage of convictions it could
be defined by her refusal in 1955 to give up her bus seat to a white man in
“simple actâ€. I just don’t buy that.
There was nothing simple or ordinary about
Rosa Parks or her refusal to move to the back of the bus….not in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.
I had let myself think too deeply about what might happen to me, I might have
gotten off the bus," she had to have been aware of the possibilities of
great harm. A black woman just didn’t defy Jim Crow in
enormous risk. After all, in 1943 she had been ordered off a bus for a similar
refusal and she walked home….she had 12 years to consider the possibilities. The
New York Times wrote, “Her act of civil disobedience, what seems a
simple gesture of defiance so many years later, was in fact a dangerous, even
reckless move in 1950’s Alabama. In refusing to
move, she risked legal sanction and perhaps even physical harm, but she also
set into motion something far beyond the control of the city authorities. Mrs.
Parks clarified for people far beyond Montgomery the cruelty and humiliation inherent in the laws and customs of segregation.â€
In 1988, Rosa Parks said at a celebration in her honor, "I am leaving
this legacy to all of you… to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a
fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will
perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die –the dream of
freedom and peace." This was no ordinary woman. She had a vision of
justice and equality and the courage to defy the obstacles in her path by her
actions.
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