It has been five days since I’ve written a “Letter.” I’ve done some other writing but nothing that faced the world in which we live. The death of Jo Cox, a Member of Britain’s Parliament, murdered in her district affected me deeply, a tearing of the barely forming Orlando scar off my physic skin.
Her name was vaguely familiar. The man who has been arrested for her murder apparently shouted “Britain first!” repeatedly as he shot and stabbed her. She was campaigning against “Brexit,” the vote for which will happen next week.
When arraigned, John Mair, the alleged killer, gave his name as “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain.”
A man described as gentle by his neighbors, he suffered mental health issues, assuaging them with volunteer work. He also was in some way affiliated with a neo-Nazi group out of America.
Jo Cox’s death affected me because…
Because it was one more example of the politics of hate in which we are all mired, because it happened in Britain where political verbal vitriol has been honed to a fine edge but where rarely are political differences manifested in physical actions. Perhaps over football but not politics.
And that is probably an Anglophile’s rose colored glasses view of British politics but it does seem rarer there that they have such events as Orlando, much rarer.
In the days following Orlando, a California pastor preached that all LGBTQ folks should meet the same end as the Orlando victims. We should all be killed off. It is not the first time in my life I have heard people call for the slaughter of the LGBTQ community but it seemed more painful this time. We have come so far from when I was a boy.
On Thursday, in a conversation with my friends, Medora and Meryl, I told them that it was on how far we have come that I had to choose to focus or my sadness would be unbearable. It had seemed an impossibility that in my lifetime gay individuals could exercise the right to wed. And now we can.
I did not think in my lifetime I could speak openly of my feelings to friends who were not of my own community.
Yet these things have happened. In my little world of Columbia County, New York I have seen the changes over the fifteen years I have been there, the opening of the community and the general acceptance by “locals” to outsiders and to outsiders were “different.”
We think the world is changing and changing for the better and then there is an Orlando, ripping at the sense of safety creeping into the world. And then come the stories of people who remain fearful, even in New York, because a show of same sex affection could mean violence.
Only since Orlando have I come to know that the LGBTQ community is, far and away, the group that is most likely to experience hate crimes.
There seems to be some movement about more control over assault rifles. One small step, one hopes. I had thought there would have been movement on that after the slaughter of the innocents in Newtown. There wasn’t but now there might be.
Young Christina Grimmie, a “The Voice” alum who was shot to death last Friday by a deranged fan who then killed himself, was buried yesterday. She, too, was killed in Orlando.
Disney there has been putting out signs to warn tourists about crocodiles and snakes after a two year old was hauled off and killed by a crocodile last week, an adorable young boy.
In Nigeria, eighteen have been killed by Boko Haram.
Belgians have arrested twelve in “terror raids” and Iraqi forces say they have retaken most of Fallujah.
Where have all the flowers gone?
To graveyards, every one…
I am sad but am choosing, must choose, not to feel hopeless and powerless. It is beautiful outside, another in a day of beautiful days on Martha’s Vineyard. The world is better than it has been, in many ways. And I must remind myself of that.
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York, still via the Vineyard 06 28 2016 Nowhere without pain…
June 29, 2016The sun has set here on Martha’s Vineyard. Today has been a day that has reminded me I am no longer as young as once I was.
Yesterday someone did not show up for their shift at Edgartown Books and I basically worked from 8:15 in the morning to 10:30 in the evening. I was also joltingly awake as I had an iced latte with an extra shot at 6:00.
All day I have been sadly tired and after lunch came home and rested. Tomorrow is another day.
Another day will not be coming for at least 36 people, plus three suicide bombers, who died at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. IS seems to have claimed responsibility, not that there weren’t immediately suspected as soon as the bombers blew themselves up.
The Benghazi Panel has at last, I think, [though I thought they had wrapped up once before] and found no smoking guns against Hillary Clinton, though putting blame on the Administration.
Reading a report on the findings, I discovered why I thought it had ended once before. This was the eighth Congressional Panel on Benghazi, cumulatively it seems they all have cost more than our investigation of 9/11. This one cost was 7million dollars.
No one comes off well here. No one…
The Republicans have revealed the stage design upon which Trump will give his acceptance speech. And probably several more. It appears The Donald will be speaking all four nights of the Republican Convention. No one else has been racing to share the stage.
The Supreme Court let stand a lower court’s decision to not restrict abortion rights though abortion law is still not crystal clear. The Supreme Court also vacated the conviction of Bob McDonnell, former Governor of Virginia, who had been convicted of taking money for influence.
The chaos in the markets over Brexit has subsided as people’s nerves are calming as the world hasn’t ended but the rocky ride is far from over. The EU wants to separate quickly and cleanly while the Brits are going “we don’t want to leave quite yet.” Brexit regret is surging in the streets as has an uptick in violence against immigrants, the perpetrators feeling emboldened by the move.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are considering what they can do to stay in. Scotland is even throwing out the notion it can veto Brexit. The Northern Irish have accelerated their efforts to get Irish passports.
The EU, which has been making English the default second language is thinking of changing that though I suspect they will not actually make that move.
Nigel Lafarge, who orchestrated the Brexit is a member of the EU Parliament and was booed and had backs turned on him when he walked onto the EU Parliament’s floor today. “Why are you here?”
Mr. Lafarge is the politician who revealed that the claim by Brexit supporters that money that went to the EU from Britain would be turned over to Britain’s National Health Service, will not be happening. It was one of the major reasons older voters voted Brexit.
Through it all, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has remained mum.
I, too, will now turn mum as I head to bed. I will hold the bombing victims from the Istanbul Airport in my heart as well as everyone else that is hurting tonight, in Syria, Nigeria, Turkey, Iraq; there isn’t a country where there is no pain, including right here.
Tags:Benghazi, Donald Trump, EU, Hillary Clinton, Istanbul bombings, Martha's Vineyard, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Nigel LaFarge, Northern Ireland, Queen Elizabeth II, Scotland, The Donald
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