Sorry, no results found for 'oakland oikos.' |
How big must an
American massacre be to rate some Presidential consoling? Twelve
murdered in the nightmare in Colorado beckoned the President, and
rightfully he traveled there to address the stunned survivors and a wounded community.
Seven dead in Oakland in a massacre in April did not rate a visit.
(Although the
President will be in Oakland this month, to give a campaign
speech at the beautiful Fox Theater, and to raise money in the town of
Piedmont, the exclusive municipal island of unimaginable wealth
completely surrounded geographically by Oakland.)
Maybe it is out
there somewhere, I hope it is, but as for the Oikos University massacre, which took place here in early April of 2012, I can barely
find a Federal government statement beyond this boilerplate from the
Secretary of Education:
"I was saddened
to learn of the senseless violence and loss of life at Oikos
University in Oakland. My thoughts are with the community and
families of the victims." -- Arne Duncan.
On the other hand,
here's some of the White House reaction to Colorado:
"As we do when
we are confronted by moments of darkness and challenge, we must come
together as one American family. All of us must have the people of
Aurora in our thoughts and prayers as they confront the loss of
family, friends and neighbors, and we must stand together with them
in the challenging hours and days to come."
-- President
Barack Obama
The President
dedicated his weekly address to the Colorado massacre, as he should
have: Remembering the Victims of the Aroura, Colorado Shooting.
Here is a list of
the President's weekly addresses in April 2012:
April 7:
Easter and Passover
April 14:
It's Time for Congress to Pass the Buffett Rule
April 21:
Calling on Congress to Prevent Student Interest Rates from Doubling
April 28:
Helping Our Veterans and Servicemembers Make Informed Decisions
about
Higher Education
What were the
differences between the massacres? The obvious difference is
the number. How many must be killed in a day by one crazed gunman to
inspire the President to come? I honestly don't know the answer, nor
do I know what's right, but I suspect you need to get into the
double-digits in deaths. Over the course of each year, Oakland does that
easily. Many years we reach the triple digits in killings. Last year
there were over 100 homicides here. But it is a slow-motion massacre.
It takes too long to spark a visit, a Presidential comment, or even much if any
debate about gun laws.
Here's a another
difference: unlike in Aurora, Colorado, many of the dead at Oikos were
immigrants or foreign nationals, some with unfamiliar-looking names,
others with names reflective of our immigrants' historic desire to
become American-ized; and they were killed not at a famous university like
Virginia Tech, but at an obscure school with a name no one was quite
sure how to pronounce. The names of the dead at Oikos:
Kathleen Ping
Doris Chibuko
Judith Seymore
Sonam Choedon
Grace Eunhae Kim
Lydia Sim
Bhutia Tshering
Otherness is often
key to the emotional processing of homicides. Some refuse to separate themselves from the killing and the killed. But in many parts of Oakland, so long
as the killed are not like you, you can deal with the shock and
sadness quickly and neatly. You might be moved, but only for a
moment. The flatlands, the Deep, the lives and deaths of the victims,
they are all a foreign country. Same with the dead and wounded at
Oikos. And so, as far as I can tell, and again, maybe I am just not
finding it out there, the White House had little or nothing to say to
us about the slaughter.
But the White House
is all over the killings in Colorado, supposedly a swing state, unlike
California.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete