Dear Mom - Tragedy and Madness

Dear Mom,

Yeah, bet you're dying to read this after that heading...

Anne and I were talking today about the current political climate and I mentioned that I had a rant brewing and would likely write to you today, and that led to her telling me about Mary questioning how I could live in Arizona under the circumstances, and Anne told Mary that A) I was fighting the lonely fight here and B) I really loved the climate, the mountains, the people and my job.

I pointed out that Pima County isn't responsible for the right wing mess that is our state government - we didn't vote for Governor Brewer and our US Representative, Gabielle Giffords, is not only a Democrat, but a truly awesome person who is honestly dedicated to public service, listens to all her constituents, not just the ones who voted for her, and does her best to represent her district in DC.

Later on, I was working on my laptop - writing an application essay, looking for a quote to use in my American History slides, waiting for yet more football - when my friend Dee in Texas IMs me about how terrible 'it' is. What's 'it'? I ask. And she tells me that Gabrielle Giffords was just shot in the head.

Which, contrary to my original reaction, turns out to be true. Shot through the head at point blank range, and maybe sixteen others, and six are dead, including a nine year old girl and a Federal Judge. The lone gunman was tackled by a bystander and taken into custody - his YouTube 'manifesto' is the work of a lunatic - no surprise.

The media has been disorganized, to say the least. Two sources declared her dead, and this was only negated an hour later when the Chief Trauma Surgeon made a live press statement saying that she was alive and he was 'optimistic'. No two networks/sites seem to have the same information at any given time.

It happened at the Safeway supermarket about four blocks from our place. I shop there fairly often and had I known that Rep Giffords was doing one of her regular 'Congress at the Corner' meet and greets, I'd have tried to be there. Fate is strange and random.

There's a lot of breastbeating and "Why? How did this happen?" but few wish to acknowledge the role of hate-fueled rhetoric, demonization and finger pointing, an 'us vs them' mentality that disdains the very sort of compromise and 'reaching out' that was Rep. Giffords' hallmark. When will we learn? When will we accept that if you yell out enough venom in public discourse, someone will go ballistic?

I'm so shaken up I don't even know how to express myself properly. I haven't felt like this since 9/11, not that I'm comparing the two events, just the sickness in my stomach and the grief for the innocents.

Love,
Barbara

Dear Mom - Anne Francis

Dear Mom,

Carolyn left me a voicemail today about some plans we'd made, ending with the note that an actor you never heard of named Pete Postlethwaite had died. So when I got online I checked it out - I had heard of him and thought he was very good, also a bit young to be dead - and then, further down the page, saw something that really startled me.

Anne Francis had died, too. At eighty, which is a lot more reasonable.

But I don't know if you'd have remembered this, but I had a huge thing about Anne Francis while she was on "Honey West" - I wanted to be her, I wanted the pageboy hairdo and the beauty mark. Hell, I wanted Honey West's ocelot, Bruce! And Joanne Mahoney and I formed our own 'detective agency', with Joanne playing April Dancer from "The Girl From UNCLE". We called it April and Honey, Inc - I wanted to call it Honey and April, of course, but Joanne said it sounded too much like a throat lozenge. I wore a leotard as often as possible and we slinked around 'spying' on people. I don't know how long it lasted - we weren't very effective.

I stopped wearing the leotard after awhile; it took longer to stop trying to force my hair into a pageboy. But I always liked her and would usually watch her whenever she showed up on television.

As Kurt Vonnegut Jr used to say, And so it goes...

Love,
b