"Charges in Dead Babies Case; Neighbors Soul-Search."-Washington Post.

BLACKSTONE, Mass. — A woman who lived in a squalid, vermin-infested home where the bodies of three infants were found was charged Friday with covering up the deaths, while neighbors said they wish they had acted themselves to call attention to the house with the foul smell and the shades that were always drawn.

Erika Murray, 31, was arraigned on charges including fetal death concealment, witness intimidation and permitting substantial injury to a child. 

...

In Blackstone, a town of less than 10,000 near the Rhode Island border about 50 miles southwest of Boston, residents fretted that such horrors had gone unnoticed.

“I think everyone in town is feeling a little of that today,” said Sarah Martin, 29, who often walked by the home with her own 2-year-old daughter but did not know the family. “When something so tragic and heart-wrenching happens, you look back and say, ‘Maybe there were clues I could have picked up on.’”

...

Neighbors said the shades were always drawn; some had noticed a foul smell. A prosecutor said that soiled diapers were piled up 2 feet high and that the remains of several animals had also been found.

...

Based on interviews with the two older children, police got a search warrant and went back to the house. That’s when they found the remains of three babies, one in a closet on Wednesday and two others on Thursday. A medical examiner is determining whether they were newborns or fetuses.

There was also a man living in the house, and Connolly said he has not been charged with anything.

Hey! Gallitzin, Pennsylvania: Ever do any of that stuff, that "soul-search" stuff? Five babies, one old enough to take his first steps murdered over a ten-year period, right there, in that house, right down the street from You, right across from You, and You and YOU! Murdered by your life-long neighbor, Stella Elizabeth Williamson, and you never heard, or saw anything? Really?

I don't believe you, Gallitzin.

I left you a rose only because You was a very unhappy lady as you was growing up.May your spirit rest knowing what you did to those poor babies.
- annie
 Added: Sep. 4, 2010

Uh, I don't know, Williamson's spirit at rest? Knowing what she did? Doesn't seem right. Doesn't seem right that a person who did what she did and hid what she hid--It doesn't seem right that that spirit should rest, does it? That would mean she got away with it. Erika Murray didn't get away with it.

Your spirit at rest "Annie?" Yours, Gallitzin?

Soul-searching. Seeking the soul. That's what normal people, people with consciences, that's what they do.

Or have done to them if they won't do it themselves.

We'll see you around, Gallitzin. Here's my card in case we run into each other again. Take this too, sort of a letter of introduction of me from a Chinese woman, name of "Song Binbin."

Five babies...Wow. Talk about having skeletons in your closet! You had five real babies skeletons
in your attic, Gallitzin! Didn't know nothin', huh?

We'll see you around, Gallitzin.

"Apple Broadens its Ecosystem With its Watch, Payment System."-Seattle Times.

I see. Apple has an "ecosystem." And Starbucks too, no doubt.

You would see a headline like that in Seattle. A few other places. California. Loopy places like that. You wouldn't see a loopy headline like that anywhere else. 

It's Friday night. Friday night's all right for fightin'.

The Day.

-Sarah Palin and Family Caught Up in "Alaska Mass Brawl."-NewsOK.com.

Always liked those people. Makes me think all the better of them.

-Danny Ferry wasn't just reading Somebody Else's scouting report. Always liked Danny Ferry. Makes me think worse of him. Michael Gearon was right. Ferry should have been fired.* Didn't believe Gearon. Believe him now. Makes me like Gearon. Adam Silver said Ferry's was not a firing offense. Always liked Adam Silver. Makes me like him a little less.

-The Rev. Ian Paisley, virulently anti-Catholic Presbyterian minister and Northern Irish politician, who once shouted at Pope John Paul II "You're the Anti-Christ!" has died. Never liked Paisley. Later in life, when Sinn Fein renounced violence and laid down arms Paisley met with Gerry Adams and got along so well in government with Adams lieutenant Martin McGuinness that the two became known as the "Chuckle Brothers."

Would never shake McGuinness' hand though.

Never liked Ian Paisley.

Here: http://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/2012/06/seeking-soul-of-benjamin-harris.html?m=1. Romania second in pageviews. Futeissgoodamuddasafoodashamaina! Makes me feel better about Romanians.

*Late in "the day" it was announced that Danny Ferry is "taking" an "indefinite leave of absence" from the Atlanta "Hawks."

Death to Islam.

President Obama's Speech to the American People on the Islamic State. Transcript.

The White House (CNN) - My fellow Americans -- tonight, I want to speak to you about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.
As Commander-in-Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people. Over the last several years, we have consistently taken the fight to terrorists who threaten our country. We took out Osama bin Laden and much of al Qaeda's leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We've targeted al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, and recently eliminated the top commander of its affiliate in Somalia. We've done so while bringing more than 140,000 American troops home from Iraq, and drawing down our forces in Afghanistan, where our combat mission will end later this year. Thanks to our military and counterterrorism professionals, America is safer.
Still, we continue to face a terrorist threat. We cannot erase every trace of evil from the world, and small groups of killers have the capacity to do great harm. That was the case before 9/11, and that remains true today. That's why we must remain vigilant as threats emerge. At this moment, the greatest threats come from the Middle East and North Africa, where radical groups exploit grievances for their own gain. And one of those groups is ISIL -- which calls itself the "Islamic State."
Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not "Islamic." No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state. It was formerly al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq, and has taken advantage of sectarian strife and Syria's civil war to gain territory on both sides of the Iraq-Syrian border. It is recognized by no government, nor the people it subjugates. ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.
In a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage. They threatened a religious minority with genocide. In acts of barbarism, they took the lives of two American journalists -- Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff.
So ISIL poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East -- including American citizens, personnel and facilities. If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region -- including to the United States. While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies. Our intelligence community believes that thousands of foreigners -- including Europeans and some Americans -- have joined them in Syria and Iraq. Trained and battle-hardened, these fighters could try to return to their home countries and carry out deadly attacks.
I know many Americans are concerned about these threats. Tonight, I want you to know that the United States of America is meeting them with strength and resolve. Last month, I ordered our military to take targeted action against ISIL to stop its advances. Since then, we have conducted more than 150 successful airstrikes in Iraq. These strikes have protected American personnel and facilities, killed ISIL fighters, destroyed weapons, and given space for Iraqi and Kurdish forces to reclaim key territory. These strikes have helped save the lives of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
But this is not our fight alone. American power can make a decisive difference, but we cannot do for Iraqis what they must do for themselves, nor can we take the place of Arab partners in securing their region. That's why I've insisted that additional U.S. action depended upon Iraqis forming an inclusive government, which they have now done in recent days. So tonight, with a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat.
Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.
First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists. Working with the Iraqi government, we will expand our efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions, so that we're hitting ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense. Moreover, I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.

Second, we will increase our support to forces fighting these terrorists on the ground. In June, I deployed several hundred American service members to Iraq to assess how we can best support Iraqi Security Forces. Now that those teams have completed their work -- and Iraq has formed a government -- we will send an additional 475 service members to Iraq. As I have said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission -- we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq. But they are needed to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence and equipment. We will also support Iraq's efforts to stand up National Guard Units to help Sunni communities secure their own freedom from ISIL control.
Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight, I again call on Congress to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters. In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost. Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria's crisis once and for all.
Third, we will continue to draw on our substantial counterterrorism capabilities to prevent ISIL attacks. Working with our partners, we will redouble our efforts to cut off its funding; improve our intelligence; strengthen our defenses; counter its warped ideology; and stem the flow of foreign fighters into -- and out of -- the Middle East. And in two weeks, I will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council to further mobilize the international community around this effort.
Fourth, we will continue providing humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians who have been displaced by this terrorist organization. This includes Sunni and Shia Muslims who are at grave risk, as well as tens of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities. We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands.
This is our strategy. And in each of these four parts of our strategy, America will be joined by a broad coalition of partners. Already, allies are flying planes with us over Iraq; sending arms and assistance to Iraqi Security Forces and the Syrian opposition; sharing intelligence; and providing billions of dollars in humanitarian aid. Secretary Kerry was in Iraq today meeting with the new government and supporting their efforts to promote unity, and in the coming days he will travel across the Middle East and Europe to enlist more partners in this fight, especially Arab nations who can help mobilize Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria to drive these terrorists from their lands. This is American leadership at its best: we stand with people who fight for their own freedom; and we rally other nations on behalf of our common security and common humanity.
My Administration has also secured bipartisan support for this approach here at home. I have the authority to address the threat from ISIL. But I believe we are strongest as a nation when the President and Congress work together. So I welcome congressional support for this effort in order to show the world that Americans are united in confronting this danger.
Now, it will take time to eradicate a cancer like ISIL. And any time we take military action, there are risks involved -- especially to the servicemen and women who carry out these missions. But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years. And it is consistent with the approach I outlined earlier this year: to use force against anyone who threatens America's core interests, but to mobilize partners wherever possible to address broader challenges to international order.
My fellow Americans, we live in a time of great change. Tomorrow marks 13 years since our country was attacked. Next week marks 6 years since our economy suffered its worst setback since the Great Depression. Yet despite these shocks; through the pain we have felt and the grueling work required to bounce back -- America is better positioned today to seize the future than any other nation on Earth.
Our technology companies and universities are unmatched; our manufacturing and auto industries are thriving. Energy independence is closer than it's been in decades. For all the work that remains, our businesses are in the longest uninterrupted stretch of job creation in our history. Despite all the divisions and discord within our democracy, I see the grit and determination and common goodness of the American people every single day -- and that makes me more confident than ever about our country's future.
Abroad, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world. It is America that has the capacity and the will to mobilize the world against terrorists. It is America that has rallied the world against Russian aggression, and in support of the Ukrainian peoples' right to determine their own destiny. It is America -- our scientists, our doctors, our know-how -- that can help contain and cure the outbreak of Ebola. It is America that helped remove and destroy Syria's declared chemical weapons so they cannot pose a threat to the Syrian people -- or the world -- again. And it is America that is helping Muslim communities around the world not just in the fight against terrorism, but in the fight for opportunity, tolerance, and a more hopeful future.

America, our endless blessings bestow an enduring burden. But as Americans, we welcome our responsibility to lead. From Europe to Asia -- from the far reaches of Africa to war-torn capitals of the Middle East -- we stand for freedom, for justice, for dignity. These are values that have guided our nation since its founding. Tonight, I ask for your support in carrying that leadership forward. I do so as a Commander-in-Chief who could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform -- pilots who bravely fly in the face of danger above the Middle East, and service-members who support our partners on the ground.
When we helped prevent the massacre of civilians trapped on a distant mountain, here's what one of them said. "We owe our American friends our lives. Our children will always remember that there was someone who felt our struggle and made a long journey to protect innocent people."
That is the difference we make in the world. And our own safety -- our own security -- depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to defend this nation, and uphold the values that we stand for -- timeless ideals that will endure long after those who offer only hate and destruction have been vanquished from the Earth.
May God bless our troops, and may God bless the United States of America.

Man, poor Adam Silver. The new commissioner of America's National Basketball Association just got over the Donald Sterling crisis and then, actually before that crisis was really over, had to deal with the similar crisis in Atlanta, which as grown from the Bruce Levenson crisis into the crisis in Atlanta. Silver became a quasi national hero with his handling of Sterling. Americans trust Adam Silver.

Not so Roger Goodell. Commish of the National (tackle) Football League, Goodell inherited a disturbing epidemic, at least in awareness, of concussions from playing the sport in his league. Prominent ex-players have committed suicide, have suffered cognitive impairment obvious to those close to them, even those who hear them speak publicly. There have been lawsuits filed by ex-players and the concussions are a real crisis for Goodell. The NFL under Goodell has looked at the issue and has defended the suits with, "Concussion crisis? What concussion crisis? We don't see any concussion crisis." Such looking and disbelieving his lying eyes has, of course, meant that Goodell has presided over an increase in the incidence of concussions, causing a health crisis and a crisis for Goodell's credibility.

Which is also the way Goodell handled the matter of star player Ray Rice. Rice got into an incidence of domestic disquiet with his betrothed, then Rice and his soulmate got into an elevator, which elevator was inside a casino. Elevators are not equipped to calm the tempests of domestic discord, manifestly did not with Rice and Janay, but elevators in casinos are with cameras and Rice was observed on the cameras to be dragging the manifestly unconscious Janay out of the elevator. Rice admitted punching Janay in the elevator and apologized--as did Janay "for my part"--which part America, disbelieving its ears, did not...see. Roger the Dodger however did see it that way, What way is that? Well, it was sort of a boys-will-be-grownup-musclebound-men and girls-will-be-provoking-part-playing-girls, and "Hey! She got her 'bell rung' okay? BIG DEAL." Sort of that way, Roger saw it. Roger suspended Rice for, I think it was, four games. Out of, I think it is, 18 games. Upon which a shit-storm of criticism, contempt and derision hit Roger upside the head. He took some smelling salts and kept on dodgin'. Until today.

Roger Goodell had not done what lawyers call his "due diligence" in "investigating" the elevator malfunction. Goodell had, get this, not seen the whole tape. "Noone in the NFL had." he said. How could that be? All of America could see that the thing was "caught on tape," that the camera that showed Rice dragging a lifeless Janay out of the elevator, said camera was positioned inside said elevator. "We asked for it (the whole tape), they never gave it to us,"  Roger avowed. Well, Monday, I think it was, TMZ, a media outlet, the media outlet that also made the Donald Sterling tapes public, TMZ asked the casino for the tape. And got it. Like lickedy-split.

?

Roger? How them smellin' salts workin', boy?

The aforesaid TMZ then published the whole tape.*

Roger had been forced to see enough and immediately and indefinitely suspended Rice for his gallantry. And kept saying, now utterly preposterously, that the NFL had too asked for the tape and they wouldn't give it to him. Frowny face. And noone in the NFL had seen the whole tape until TMZ
published it. That's what Roger the Dodger said.

Roger Goodell was proved a liar today. The Associated Press proved Goodell lied because AP found proof that the whole tape had been delivered to NFL headquarters in April and AP published a message left by an NFL staffer on the courier's voicemail, confirming receipt and acknowledging viewing it: "You're right. It's terrible."

One, but only one United States Senator, has recommended Goodell should "seriously consider" resigning. Goodell should seriously consider a lobotomy but he absolutely, positively has to go. Or be dragged out.
........

*This entire paragraph has been re-written. I recalled the tape incorrectly and described it inaccurately in the original post. On September 11 there were two more tapes revealed, one by TMZ has been made public, the other by AP apparently has not been made public but has been described by AP. The new TMZ tape, which I have seen ,is of higher quality, in color, and shows interaction between Rice and Janay before they entered the elevator. The new tape begins with Rice standing by a column, waiting for Janay, in a hallway leading to, and about 15-20 feet from, the elevators.  At 8 seconds on the new TMZ tape Janay catches up to Rice who clearly, to me, spits in her face. Janay throws out her left arm striking Rice in neck area, perhaps the face, but it looks like the neck to me. Janay did not stop walking when she threw out her left arm at Rice and it is not a forceful strike. Janay continues walking and Rice follows after her a few steps behind. They enter the elevator together, Rice now right behind Janay.  In the elevator, Rice appears, but it is not clear (to me) to spit in Janay's face again and to strike or push her. While Rice is at or near the opposite elevator wall from Janay, who then aggressively comes toward Rice. At 28 seconds, Rice throws a very quick, forceful punch, striking Janay in the face. She is clearly knocked unconscious before she falls to the floor.

The AP report describes the leadup to the knockout punch this way:

Ray Rice and Janay Palmer can be heard shouting obscenities at each other, and she appears to spit in the face of the three-time Pro Bowl running back right before he throws a brutal punch in a video shown to The Associated Press by a law enforcement official.

The new TMZ video contains no audio, Janay does not appear to me to do any spitting, it is Rice who spits, and I disagree with the characterization that it was a "brutal" punch. 

ESPN describes the spitting this way:

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Ray Rice spat in the face of Janay Palmer the night he punched her in a hotel elevator, one current and one former security staffer at the Revel hotel told "Outside the Lines."
...
One former staffer said Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back, spat in his then-fiancée's face twice, "once outside the elevator and once inside," prompting her to retaliate with movements that were ultimately countered with a knockout punch.

That is the way I saw it. I do not know what the tape that AP reporters saw showed. 

I do not see that Janay had any "part" in getting knocked unconscious by a punch thrown by her professional football playing husband. I see Ray Rice being the aggressor that night, from 8 seconds through 28 seconds of the new TMZ tape. However, it was not a "brutal" punch. If, as I recall, Rice was initially suspended for four games, that seems about right (to me). It does not seem right, it seems excessive, (to me) to indefinitely suspend Rice. Rice has also been "cut," i.e. had his contract with the Baltimore "Ravens" terminated. 

Know Islam, No Peace.

Tonight, on September 11th eve, President Barack Obama addresses the nation on confronting IS, the Islamic State.

President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine announced today that Russian troops have been withdrawing from the east. 

From WSB TV Atlanta via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

The following is the two-page letter written by Hawks’ co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. to majority owner Bruce Levenson in June requesting that GM Danny Ferry be asked to resign or fired for cause for racial slurs made during a conference call:

To: Bruce Levenson

From: SSG Group, LLC

Date: June 12, 2014

Re: Danny Ferry

As you know, last Friday there was a conference call attended by numerous persons including Hawks management and ownership. We believe that you and Ed Peskowitz were on the call, but we are not sure whether you were listening the whole time. During the call, which was recorded so that notes could be made for our partners unable to participate live, our GM Danny Ferry discussed player personnel issues at some length. With respect to one potential free agent, a highly-regarded African-American player and humanitarian, Ferry talked about the player’s good points, and then went on to describe his negatives, stating that “he has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he’s like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back.” Ferry completed the racial slur by describing the player (and impliedly, all persons of African descent) as a two-faced liar and cheat.

We are appalled that anyone would make such a racist slur under any circumstance, much less the GM of an NBA franchise on a major conference call. One of us can be heard on the tape reacting with astonishment. Our franchise has had a long history of racial diversity and inclusion that reflect the makeup of our great city. Ferry’s comments were so far out of bounds that we are concerned that he has put the entire franchise in jeopardy.

As a minority partner with no effective say in decision-making, we were somewhat at a loss what to do next. So we consulted this week with two attorneys, one a very well-known and highly respected African-American former judge in Atlanta, and the other a highly regarded employment discrimination lawyer. They confirmed our fears and then some. The former judge put it pretty succinctly, saying that any African-American who heard the comments would interpret them as meaning “all blacks are two-faced liars and cheats.” The employment attorney opined that we as a team face significant exposure, possibly in the courts, but certainly in the court of public opinion, and, as we all know, within the league. She described the possible fallout as “devastating.” We agree.

Bruce, we are all too familiar with the current environment in the NBA and in the country generally from the fallout of Donald Sterling’s offensive comments. You have been on national television condemning Sterling and preaching zero tolerance of racial prejudice. We believe these comments by Ferry were far worse than Sterling’s because they were not from a private personal conversation – they were in a business environment on a business matter in front of a dozen or more people. If Ferry would make such a slur in a semi-public forum, we can only imagine what he has said in smaller groups or to individuals. We also note that the racial diversity of our management team has changed for the worse since Ferry took over. The media (and any savvy lawyer) would have a field day with that fact.

If Ferry’s comments are ever made public, and it’s a safe bet to say they will someday, it could be fatal to the franchise. All of our partners have worked and spent a lot of money not just to make the Hawks winners, but to make our city and region proud of the organization. As lifelong Atlantans with a public track record of diversity and inclusion, we are especially fearful of the unfair consequences when we eventually get thrown under the bus with Ferry.

We are calling on you, as majority owner and NBA Governor, to take swift and severe action against Ferry. Our advisors tell us there is no other choice but to ask for Ferry’s resignation, and if he refuses, to terminate him for cause under his employment agreement.

J. Michael Gearon, Jr.

..........................................

I don't believe Gearon's letter. I don't believe Danny Ferry said all of that. If there is still a tape it should be made public. If there is not then Ferry should be asked to confirm or deny that he said those  things specifically mentioned in Gearon's letter. I understand Ferry has issued a written statement and I have read it. Ferry does not address the specific quotes attributed to him in Gearon's letter. Ferry writes that he was reading from the scouting report. If the specific quotes in Gearon's letter were from the scouting report then I agree that Ferry should have orally edited them. They are far more extensive than preciously reported and virulently racist. If those are the words in the scouting report then Ferry should have reported the report and its author to Atlanta ownership and the NBA and not used or read any of the report. Gearon's letter just does not sound right. To me. Ferry should address it specifically and the tape and the scouting report should be made public.

Somebody Else, the author of the scouting report on Chinese-descended Luol Deng, should be fired by whichever NBA team employs him. (What do you think the chances are Somebody Else is of African descent? That would be ironic.) Under the standard of "reasonable and articulable suspicion" Somebody Else's employer organization should be subject to a sweeping top-to-bottom investigation.

Under "reasonable and articulable suspicion" Danny Ferry, General Manager of Atlanta, should not be disciplined (although he was) for failure to orally "edit" Somebody Else's written report. William C. Rhoden of The New York Times wrote that he is "curious" how Ferry responded to Bruce Levenson's email. That is more important, it seems to me.

"I think there's a constitution for a reason, right? Because this is a very slippery slope," Cuban said before Game 4 of the Mavericks-San Antonio Spurs series. "What Donald said was wrong. It was abhorrent. There's no place for racism in the NBA, any business I'm associated with, and I don't want to be associated with people who have that position.

"But at the same time, that's a decision I make. I think you've got to be very, very careful when you start making blanket statements about what people say and think, as opposed to what they do. It's a very, very slippery slope.

"Again, there's no excuse for his positions. There's no excuse for what he said. There's no excuse for anybody to support racism. There's no place for it in our league, but there's a very, very, very slippery slope."

"In this country, people are allowed to be morons," Cuban said. "They're allowed to be stupid. They're allowed to think idiotic thoughts. ... Within an organization like the NBA, we try to do what's in the best interest of the league and that's why we have a commissioner and a constitution and I think Adam will be smart and deal with Donald with the full extent available. But, again, if you're saying a blanket, 'Let's kick him out?' I don't want to go that far because it's not about Donald, it's not about his position, it's about his mess - and what are we going to make a decision on?

Cuban called it "damn scary" to consider removing somebody from the NBA because of their private thoughts.

"In no uncertain terms am I supporting what Donald Sterling said, or his position," Cuban said. "He's obviously racist, he's obviously bigoted. And in this day and age when you're in the public eye, you've got to be damn careful - if that's your position and that's unfortunately where you're at - you better be damn careful what you say, even in the privacy of your own home.

"But regardless of your background, regardless of the history they have, if we're taking something somebody said in their home and we're trying to turn it into something that leads to you being forced to divest property in any way, shape or form, that's not the United States of America. I don't want to be part of that."

-Mark Cuban, Owner, Dallas "Mavericks," April 29, 2014.http://m.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/mark-cuban-slams-sterling-bigot-favor-booting-clips-owner-article-1.1772540

"If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it’s late at night, I’m walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face--white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere--I’m walking back to the other side of the street."

“I know that I’m not perfect. While we all have our prejudices and bigotries, we have to learn that it’s an issue that we have to control, that it’s part of my responsibility as an entrepreneur to try to solve it, not just to kick the problem down the road."

-Cuban, May 21, 2014. http://www.inc.com/maria-aspan/mark-cuban-discusses-bigotry-post-donald-sterling-fiasco.html

To me, those provide "reasonable and articulable suspicion" to search Mark Cuban's emails and the emails of all "Mavericks" employees for evidence of racism.

When the NBA's race relations problem broke anew Sunday the Reverend Al Sharpton said that the "vetting" of NBA owners should continue. I didn't know that any "vetting," which I understood to mean some kind of investigation, had been initiated. I thought whatever it was had begun and ended with the Donald Sterling nee Tokowitz case. I still do not know if any after-the-fact vetting or investigation occurred. However, what William C. Rhoden of The New York Times wrote on Sunday made me think it had not:

Now I understand why the N.B.A. did not want the Donald Sterling case to go to trial. Why the league did not want to follow the truth to where it really led.

Now it should.

In light of this second embarrassing disclosure, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver should conduct an investigation to find out how many other Donald Sterlings and Bruce Levensons are among the league’s owners and top executives. Who are the racists, the sexists, the homophobes? Throughout the Sterling ordeal, I maintained that the best thing that could have happened to the N.B.A. — to all of us — was for the case to go to trial. To push Sterling — who was forced to sell the Los Angeles Clippers several months after an audio recording in which he was heard making racist comments was released in April, — to acknowledge what he knew about the deeds and misdeeds of other owners and top executives in the league.

I do remember Sterling hinting that he had dope on other owners and threatening to reveal it. I agree with Sharpton and Rhoden that the NBA should follow up. I share Rhoden's assumption that Sterling and Levenson are not the only two. I think Sterling should be talked to, if he will talk. I disagree with Rhoden that the NBA should have let the Sterling case go to trial. It was in everyone's interests to divest Sterling as soon as possible. Players were, justifiably, threatening to boycott the upcoming season, not only "Clippers" players but others as well. 

If the NBA is to proactively--and retroactively--investigate its owners the issue for me, a lawyer, is by what standard. The NBA may, I do not know, have the legal right to just do a blanket search of the emails of all owners and team employees. In my opinion it should not do that. That is too close for me to a witch hunt. There is, in the penumbras and emanations of Anglo-American law, the notion that we should be free from witch hunts, that without some reason to suspect, we should be free from suspicion. When the larger issue is race relations and here Jewish-Black relations, the NBA should be chary of blanket suspicion. Jews and Blacks have been abused by racial profiling assumptions. No blanket searches. Searches based upon some standard. There is a smorgasbord of standards from which to choose. How about "reasonable and articulable suspicion"? 

Are you ready? Are you READY! At 10 am La-La land time, 6 pm Normal People Time, Apple will unveil its new iPhone. I've already had several O's.

Everything in that last post is true. Including me writing out what the ESPN headline writer wrote about Jeremy Lin. I considered writing C---- but didn't think readers would know what C---- was, it's not like "the N word," I don't think we can even write N-----, maybe that shouldn't be capitalized, n----- anymore so to avoid confusion I wrote...that word but put it in parentheses like this here " " to indicate that that was not my word it was somebody else's that ESPN guy's. Query me this, actually query...another person or your own self: If Danny Ferry had read out loud the word African but had done the spoken equivalent of what I did, had Danny Ferry, when he spoke the word African, put his hands up, just slightly, and wiggled his fingers, would that have been okay?-OR-If Danny Ferry had said quote-unquote after saying African would that have been okay? Danny Ferry cannot have been required to say "the A word" or A------ because African does not have epitath-hood status. OR did I miss a memo.

I don't even know how to title this post. I don't know what this is.

Bruce Levenson's email was discovered as a result of a law firm's search. The email search (for offensive words?) was commissioned by another Atlanta "Hawk" co-owner. The co-owner commissioned the search after General Manager Danny Ferry read out loud at an organizational meeting a scouting report on a player that contained racial language. The report was written by somebody else. Somebody Else didn't work for Atlanta, he worked for another team Another Team. Ferry did not edit out the racial remark when he read aloud the report. The report was on player Luol Deng who I thought might have been Chinese. (I said might!). And so I was thinking maybe like with Jeremy Lin, Somebody Else's report referred to Luol Deng with an epithet like "Chink" and Ferry read that or a similar epithet out loud. (I said I was thinking that, I didn't know!) Without editing it. Somehow. So I was confused when I read:

"He is still a young guy overall. He is a good guy overall. But he is not perfect. He's got some African in him. And I don't say that in a bad way."

?

...I say I was perplexed, I was "thrown off base" when I read that, thinking as I did that Luol Deng might be Chinese. Based on the name. Last name. Which in Chinese would actually be the first name but I didn't think about that! So I googled Luol Deng.

And I must say, although genetically all of us "have some African" in our own selves on account of that's where, like, humanity began, I say, I have to concede that Luol Deng does not look Chinese. Or Asian. Luol Deng looks like he has LOTS of African in him. Which is fine! We all don't have to be Chinese not that there is anything wrong with that!

I am getting a negative impression of the intelligence level of basketball people from all this, from Donald Sterling to Bruce Levenson to the author of the scouting report. Hell, throw in Dan Gilbert and Mark Cuban. I mean, what does this mean?

"He is still a young guy overall. He is a good guy overall. But he is not perfect. He's got some African in him. And I don't say that in a bad way."

Somebody Else should explain it.

Black people! Black people! that place is 99% black!  Maybe that's the "crowd" Levenson saw.

"then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:

-- it's 70 pct black"

-Bruce Levenson, businessman, owner Atlanta "Hawks."

The Atlanta "Hawks" Redskin Problem.

As I began reading Bruce Levenson's email my first thought was, "This man doesn't know his business." Fans showing up late is because of Black people? "Has he ever been to a game in Miami?" I thought. I have, many times, it drove me nuts, too. And they left early.  The people who attended Miami games back then, 15 years ago or so, and who showed up late and left early, were overwhelmingly White.

Then I read Levenson write that when he has looked at Atlanta's crowds they were 70% Black, "Well, Atlanta is known as a Black city," I thought, "But 70%? Really? That doesn't sound right." "What if it was? And what if that 70% did not come close to filling up the arena? Doesn't a businessman have the right to cater to a larger market? No, actually. Under the law race (or color, creed, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation) cannot be used in making business decisions involving, like, people. Can't hire or fire based on them, cannot say "I don't want Black people because they are bad for White business." That was what the lunch counter sit-ins of the Civil Rights movement were about. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and his front office would have mentioned this detail to Levenson.

I was still curious if Levenson knew his business, if he was correct about the racial composition of Atlanta "Hawks" crowds. I read that Atlanta is 54% black. "70% black crowds! No, that can't be right." So I googled it, image at top. The man does not know his business. I would bet Adam Silver and staff also would have suggested Levenson get his eyes checked.

The NBA's Race Relations Problem.

NBA Commissioner Silver on Levenson decision
Official release
Posted Sep 7, 2014 11:20 AM

NEW YORK -- NBA Commissioner Adam Silver released the following statement regarding Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson:

"Following Bruce Levenson notifying the league office this July of his August 2012 email, the NBA commenced an independent investigation regarding the circumstances of Mr. Levenson's comments.
Prior to the completion of the investigation, Mr. Levenson notified me last evening that he had decided to sell his controlling interest in the Atlanta Hawks. As Mr. Levenson acknowledged, the views he expressed are entirely unacceptable and are in stark contrast to the core principles of the National Basketball Association. He shared with me how truly remorseful he is for using those hurtful words and how apologetic he is to the entire NBA family -- fans, players, team employees, business partners and fellow team owners -- for having diverted attention away from our game.
I commend Mr. Levenson for self-reporting to the league office, for being fully cooperative with the league and its independent investigator, and for putting the best interests of the Hawks, the Atlanta community, and the NBA first.

We will be working with the Hawks ownership group on the appropriate process for the sale of the team and I have offered our full support to Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, who will now oversee all team operations.

The NBA and its teams have long had in place anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies in order to facilitate respectful and diverse workplaces. Earlier this summer, the league re-doubled its efforts by, among other things, making it mandatory for all league and team personnel to receive annual training on these issues."

Bruce Levenson Statement.

ATLANTA HAWKS OWNER BRUCE LEVENSON STATEMENT REGARDING TEAM SALE

ATLANTA, GA – The following statement was released today by Atlanta Hawks Controlling Owner Bruce Levenson:

“Over the past several years, I’ve spent a lot of time grappling with low attendance at our games and the need for the Hawks to attract more season ticket holders and corporate sponsors. Over that time, I’ve talked with team executives about the need for the Hawks to build a more diverse fan base that includes more suburban whites, and I shared my thoughts on why our efforts to bridge Atlanta’s racial sports divide seemed to be failing.

In trying to address those issues, I wrote an e-mail two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive. I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e. that white fans might be afraid of our black fans). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans.

If you're angry about what I wrote, you should be. I'm angry at myself, too. It was inflammatory nonsense. We all may have subtle biases and preconceptions when it comes to race, but my role as a leader is to challenge them, not to validate or accommodate those who might hold them.

I have said repeatedly that the NBA should have zero tolerance for racism, and I strongly believe that to be true. That is why I voluntarily reported my inappropriate e-mail to the NBA.

After much long and difficult contemplation, I have decided that it is in the best interests of the team, the Atlanta community, and the NBA to sell my controlling interest in the Hawks franchise.

Hawks CEO Steve Koonin will oversee all team operations and take all organizational reports as we proceed with the sale process.

I’m truly embarrassed by my words in that e-mail, and I apologize to the members of the Hawks family and all of our fans.

To the Hawks family and its fans, you have my deepest gratitude for the past ten years. Working with this team and its extraordinary executives, coaching staff, and players has been one of the highlights of my life. I am proud of our diverse, passionate, and growing legion of Hawks fans, and I will continue to join you in cheering for the best team in the NBA.”

And right on cue, someone has read one one of the posts written here on the Donald Sterling affair.
http://publicoccurrenc.blogspot.com/2014/04/effective-immediately-i-am-banning-mr.html

Sporting news.

The Jewish owner of a National Basketball Association franchise will sell the team because of comments he made on the racial composition of the team's fan base. Donald Sterling nee Tokowitz, right? Old news, man. Move on...No, Bruce Levenson, owner of the Atlanta "Hawks."

The email, below, was self-reported by Levenson to the NBA this July, almost two years after he wrote it, and after Sterling's racist comments came to light. Levenson today issued an apology and an acknowledgment of wrong-doing. Those are the facts. I have not yet read the email in its entirety nor Levenson's communications with the league office and will not post anything on this specific matter until I have. 

In general, as I wrote during the Sterling matter, I am extremely concerned about this issue, "this issue" to me being race relations in America.  In the NBA we have a highly significant subset of race relations in America, Jewish-Black relations. They have long been strained, the origins of which I am not clear but of their existence there is no doubt, and in the NBA about half of the owners are Jewish and about 80% of the players are black, so we have a concentration, a distillation in the NBA of Jewish-Black race relations and race relations in America generally. 

Jewish Donald Sterling's private, candid racism toward Black people was gutting. Literally, it almost made me sick to my stomach. The issue here is relations: that's two-way. What Donald Sterling really thought about Black people was sickeningly clear. But what Black people thought about Donald Sterling as a Jew, was not clear, at least not to me. Sterling was condemned by almost everyone although Mark Cuban, another Jewish owner, was more "nuanced," as I think his remarks were characterized at the time. Did Black people react to Sterling as a racist Jew or as "just" a racist white man? I didn't hear one remark from a Black person or any person about Sterling's Jewishness. I made such remarks. Sterling's racist comments about Black people brought back, or reinforced, racist stereotypes of Jews also: Jews as rich, exploitative, clannish, deceiving, betraying. I, personally, felt deceived and betrayed by Donald Sterling.  I, a white Anglo-Saxon (raised as a) Protestant male reacted to Sterling's comments primarily as sickening, explosive racism toward Black people and secondarily as consistent with ugly stereotypes of Jewish people. For me, it was about as disturbing as it could get. 

From: Bruce Levenson

Sent: 8/25/2012 11:47:02 PM

Subject: Re: Business/Game ops

1. from day one i have been impressed with the friendliness and professionalism of the arena staff -- food vendors, ushers, ticket takers, etc. in our early years when i would bring folks from dc they were blown away by the contrast between abe pollin's arena and philips. some of this is attributable to southern hospital and manners but bob and his staff do a good job of training. To this day, I can not get the ushers to call me Bruce yet they insist on me calling them by their first names.

2. the non-premium area food is better than most arenas, though that is not saying much. i think there is room for improvement and creativity. Levy is our food vendor so we don't have much control but they have been good partners. i have wished we had some inconic offereing like boog's barbeque at the baseball stadium in balt.

3. our new restaurant, red, just opened so too early for me to give you my thoughts.

4. Regarding game ops, i need to start with some background. for the first couple of years we owned the team, i didn't much focus on game ops. then one day a light bulb went off. when digging into why our season ticket base is so small, i was told it is because we can't get 35-55 white males and corporations to buy season tixs and they are the primary demo for season tickets around the league. when i pushed further, folks generally shrugged their shoulders. then i start looking around our arena during games and notice the following:

-- it's 70 pct black

-- the cheerleaders are black

-- the music is hip hop

-- at the bars it's 90 pct black

-- there are few fathers and sons at the games

-- we are doing after game concerts to attract more fans and the concerts are either hip hop or gospel.

Then i start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different. Even DC with its affluent black community never has more than 15 pct black audience.

Before we bought the hawks and for those couple years immediately after in an effort to make the arena look full (at the nba's urging) thousands and thousands of tickets were being giving away, predominantly in the black community, adding to the overwhelming black audience.

My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a signficant season ticket base. Please dont get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arean back then. i never felt uncomfortable, but i think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites i would read comments about how dangerous it is around philips yet in our 9 years, i don't know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.

I have been open with our executive team about these concerns. I have told them I want some white cheerleaders and while i don't care what the color of the artist is, i want the music to be music familiar to a 40 year old white guy if that's our season tixs demo. i have also balked when every fan picked out of crowd to shoot shots in some time out contest is black. I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black.

Gradually things have changed. My unscientific guess is that our crowd is 40 pct black now, still four to five times all other teams. And my further guess is that 40 pct still feels like 70 pet to some whites at our games. Our bars are still overwhelmingly black.

This is obviously a sensitive topic, but sadly i think it is far and way the number one reason our season ticket base is so low.

And many of our black fans don't have the spendable income which explains why our f&b and merchandise sales are so low. At all white thrasher games sales were nearly triple what they are at hawks games (the extra intermission explains some of that but not all).

Regardless of what time a game starts, we have the latest arriving crowd in the league. It often looks and sounds empty when the team takes the floor.

In the past two years, we have created a section of rowdy college students that has been a big plus. And we do a lot of very clever stuff during time outs to entertain the crowd. Our kiss cam is better done than any in the league.

We have all the same halftime acts that other arenas have but i question whether they make sense. people are on their cell phones during half time. i wonder if flashing on the scoreboard "$2 off on hot dogs during halftime tonight" just as the half ends would be a better use of our halftime dollars and make the fans happier.

We do all the usual giveways and the fans are usually their loudest when our spirit crew takes the floor to give away t-shirts. It pisses me off that they will yell louder for a t-shirt then for our players.

Our player intro is flat. We manufacture a lot of noise but because of the late arriving crowd and the fact that a lot of blacks dont seem to go as crazy cheering (another one of my theories) as whites, it is not great. Even when we have just returned from winnng four straight on the road, i am one of the few people in the arena standing and cheering when our team takes the floor. Bob has kicked around ideas like having the starters coming down aisles rather than off the bench during intros. Sounds cool but may highlight all the empty seats at the start of games.

Not enough of our fans wear hawks jerseys to games. i have just begun to push for ideas like discount food lines for folks wearing jerseys, special entrances, etc. I think we need a committed and perhaps incentivized fan club. We need to realize atl is simply different than every other city. Just adopting nba best practices is not enough. we have to create our own.

I am rambling and could probably go on forever. If you have any specific areas you would like my thoughts on, let me know.

Best,

Bruce

ps -- I have cc'd todd and ed so they can chime in with additional or different thoughts.

Remembrances the American Way.

It's embarrassing, but Dolly Parton's tits are embarrassing. Americans do embarrassing, we do it without embarrassment. If you do embarrassing without embarrassment do you do it unknowingly?

If you come out of the ladies room all dressed up but with toilet paper hanging from the hem of your designer dress or stuck to the bottom of your Louboutin's people will point at you and laugh but you didn't know! You embarrassed yourself unknowingly.There is no shame--Ooh, that word again--doing the embarrassing without embarrassment unknowingly. We all make mistakes, we all do stupid sometimes, societies are going to do stupid things. But that's what that means, right? If, unknowingly, you do something embarrassing without embarrassment you've done something that is, at least a little bit, stupid. Stupid is as stupid does. Americans don't think of themselves as stupid, but we're not "150%" sure on that one.

Now if you do the embarrassing knowingly without embarrassment, if the thinking is "I just don't care."--How many times have you heard an American say that?--then you're...uncaring. No shame there either! If you "just don't care" about hundreds of people in your own society who have been killed, that's cold. Americans don't think of themselves as cold, either and Americans are "150%" convinced on that one. Americans think of themselves as warm. As nice. We're nice, "friendly." Near synonyms of cold are selfish, narcissistic, anti-social, mean, psychopathological, right? Now, you're hurting our feelings, we're nice, friendly people who care about human life and human feelings, we like you, we want you to like us, Here, we'll give you some money so you will like us--OR better--Do you like fake tits? We can give you fake tits and you can give us money, that would make us happier and would make you happy too, see, we both win!  You don't want fake tits? What, are you French or something? We don't like you anymore. How about a big car, wanna big car? Can sell you one? No? We hate you then. "To be perfectly honest" we don't care if you're happy. Take the fake tits OR the big car and give us the money and nobody will get hurt. 

Which means that either way, knowingly or unknowingly, Americans are a shameless people.

When you do the embarrassing knowingly without embarrassment and repeat the behavior; when you are cold, uncaring, narcissistic then "as night follows day" your behavior will be mean, it will be insulting to people living or dead, even people in your own society, which you don't recognize psychologically because you are anti-social, you're a psychopath, you're violent.

Americans do not see themselves that way at all.

Remembrances: Important American Plaques.

Remembrances.

They're dancing by the pale moonlight. And they're dancing with the devil.

That painting is by Eric Edward Esper. I first saw it just a few days ago, it was only painted in 2013, and I recognized it immediately. It was painful.

It was painful to see that painting because at 3:15 pm on December 30, 1903, as that cast of Mr. Bluebird came out for Act II and began singing "Let Us Swear It by the Pale Moonlight"...Can you believe it?:

(Men.) Say it is in-form-al, but im-proper? not at all!
(Girls.) Mer-cy! how you fright-ened us! that is-n't right at all!
(Girls.) How can we get down there?
(Men.) Jump, we'll catch you
(Girls.) no, we'd fall.
(Men.) Dearest, how you trem-ble!
(Men.) Let us swear it by the pale moon-light,-- We love you blind-ly.
(Girls.) Let us wear it in the pale moon-light,---We thank you kind-ly

That spotlight creating the dreamy moonlight, right in that spot about 15 feet above stage as depicted by Mr. Esper, began sputtering and sparking and some of the sparks landed on the stage drapery and the stage drapery caught fire. It was all over in, from memory about 15 minutes, but no longer than 30, and when it was all over about 605...605!...mostly women and children, a holiday matinee audience...

Oh boy. I have not written about this previously...Writing slows me down, makes me think, makes me feel, and this is the first time....

...Okay... The Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago is the second deadliest in history, in world history, second only to the Ringtheatrebrand in Vienna in 1881 (850 killed). Anyway, what prompted this post was my Friday line and then I remembered Mr. Esper's painting, The Conflagration of the Absolutely Fireproof Iroquois Theater. 

At least three times over the last few years I had written fairly lengthy drafts on memorialization, on why human beings, especially Americans, memorialize some things and not others.

I own a few things from the Iroquois Theatre. I own a hardbound commemorative opening-night, November 23, 1903, program; I own four--Four? I don't know why four.--copies of the "Let us swear it by the pale moonlight" sheet music. And I own one example of the Kilfyre cannisters, there were only three or four of them in the theater that afternoon, they contained bicarbonate-of soda and powder, and they were the only fire-fighting equipment in the house. I don't claim that those constitute proper memorialization but, very sad to say, they are about the only memorialization that exists.

I couldn't believe the Kilfyre when I got it and I have explained it to people who have been over to my house when they've seen it and asked "What's that?" The Kilfyre is a metal tube about three feet long and two inches in diameter. I've explained to friends how "proper use" of the Kilfyre was to throw the contents at the flames; I've explained how the one in-house fireman attempted to do that that afternoon but that the arc light that started the fire was on a platform 15 feet up; The absurdity of trying to throw powder up at a fire, the absurdity of the powder falling back down onto the fireman; The absurdity of having a stomach antacid--Anybody got any Tums?--as the sole means to extinguish a fire in a crowded theater. The whole thing was just sounded so preposterous. So with the Kilfyre I could see it for myself, I could hold the thing in my hand and pretend to throw it. The standard distance between floors in a standard American apartment or condominium building is 12-15 feet. So I could take the Kilfyre outside onto the ground floor of my building...And I did that. I didn't even fake throw it; I looked up at the second floor, looked at the Kilfyre in my hand and after a few seconds just walked back into the lobby of my building. So, I could see how preposterous the whole thing was, see?*

Anyway, memorialization. They didn't memorialize the Iroquois. Never did. But I didn't know that at
first.

The first time I ever thought about this memorialization thing was some years ago in New York City. I had gone there with a woman I was dancing with, we were going to something at NYU but I went to two things at NYU and I'm not sure which one this was. Anyway. We were in a hurry, I remember we were walking and we rounded a corner and I noticed a plaque on the wall of the building we were next to. It was the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. I turned around and looked at it as we kept walking and said something to my dance partner about it but that was it, we got to wherever we were going, the weekend concluded and I came back home. I had made a mental note to look it up and when I got back home I did.

I was shocked, outraged really, to discover that the very floors on which the Triangle Shirtwaist sweatshop was located, where the fire started, where all of those 146--"Only" 146, right?--burned to death, or jumped to their deaths on the street below,---plump, plump, plump--those same floors were being used by NYU! I kicked something so hard I stubbed my toe.**

A couple of years after that visit to New York City I read an article in The New Yorker. The article was about a doctor. A doctor who had recently died, committed suicide as I remember, perhaps incorrectly, but about a doctor who had come up with what is now the gold standard in treatment of severe burn victims. Previous practice had been to put like vaseline or something on the burns but this doctor and the hospital he was at ran out of vaseline or whatever it was and he became a medical bricoleur and wrapped his patients that one night in gauze, maybe with vaseline on the burns, I don't know, but the innovation was the gauze because it let the burn wounds breathe and that lessened infection. The reason the doctor and hospital had to improvise was because "that one night" was the night of the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub fire in Boston. 1942. 492 people burned to death.

Previously, I had sort of chalked up the Triangle Shirtwaist fire to more or less typical Gilded Age or near Gilded Age (1911) industrial madness. But 1942. I'm not that old but my parents were that old so I knew people who would have been adults in 1942, they were reasonable people, not like those Gildings of the Johnstown Flood or the near-Gildings of the Iroqois or Triangle. Who knows what those people thought? But 1942! My parents would have been devastated by the Cocoanut Grove fire. I would have thought, and I really did think, that the people of 1942 would have memorialized the Cocoanut Grove fire. But, they didn't. Oh, there's a plaque, like on the Brown aka Asch building at NYU, on the site, or near the site of the Cocoanut Grove in the sidewalk.

With Cocoanut Grove I became intrigued. What could explain this? In the American South practically every little town has some kind of monument to the Civil War dead. That was memorialized and never forgotten. In every county seat anywhere in North or South one can find memorializations to American war dead in all wars. IknowIknowIknow, wars are different. "Heroes," not  "victims."  I thought of other mass-loss events. The Johnstown Flood. That was memorialized. If the distinction between heroes and victims accounts for no memorialization for the Iroquois, Triangle and Cocoanut Grove, then what explains the Johnstown Flood Memorial?

I compiled a chronological list of non-war mass-loss events, even visited a few sites:


Ringtheaterbrand, 1861,Vienna, Austria: Memorial.
Johnstown Flood, 1889: Memorial.
Iroquois Theater, 1903: None.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, 1911. None.***
S.S. Eastland, 1915: None.****
Cocoanut Grove Nightclub, 1942: None.
Our Lady of the Angels school, 1958. None.
Beverly Hills Nightclub, 1977: None.
Murrah Building Bombing, 1995: Memorial.
9/11/2001: More memorials than you can shake a Muslim at. Memorials of every race, color, and creed. Titanosaurus-sized memorials.
The Station Nightclub, 2003: In the works.

That's my list. Go ahead, explain away, make my day.

Professor Kenneth E. Foote of the University of Colorado actually does explain it. In his book Shadowed Ground--What a superb title, huh?--Professor Foote offers..."shame" as an explanation for the unmemorialized. Shame! That is brilliant! I had never thought of that. People want to forget as soon as possible. Shame, wanting to forget, best explains, for me, the lack of memorialization at the Our Lady of the Angels fire site. By contrast we feel no shame with our war dead because they were "heroes" so Great-great-great Grandfather Beauregard Pickens, you get this pertty statue in the town square in Rabbit Shuffle, North Carolina. The 95 Angels, the 605 in the Iroquois,***** not so much. Not so much as one statue. Not so much as a plaque in the sidewalk.

That's some serious shame going on there, Pilgrim. Grandpa Beauregard fights in a war against the United States of America, for slavery, loses the war...and still gets a statue. Why then doesn't Timothy McVeigh get a statue in Oklahoma City? 605 moms and kids are burned to death in the Iroquois and they get nary a plaque; 844 mostly young women drown when the Eastland is at dock in a river, 20 feet deep, and those 844 get a single plaque. Shame doesn't adequately explain that to me. No shame maybe would add to the explanation.

The Eastland, like the Iroquois, like the Asch Building "reopened;" it was retrofitted, made more sea-worthy,--or river-worthy--renamed the USS Wilmette and was used during World War II!

That's insulting.

The treatment of those killed in the Iroquois, on the Eastland, in the Asch building, in the Cocoanut Grove, is insulting to the memory of the dead and a stain on the soul of America. Better to have the site off-limits forever, or at least ever since, as in the case of the Beverly Hills fire. Shame also does not explain the existence of the Johnstown Flood Memorial, nor the Suhnhaus (literally "sin house," House of Atonement) memorial that existed (until the Allies bombed it) in Vienna to the Ringtheaterbrand victims. 1861 Austria cared more for human life, thought more to memorialize its loss, than did 1903 or 1915 America?

That's insulting.

Of the eleven mass-loss events listed above in only four are there national memorials, where the whole society remembers. Two of those four were attacks, one of those was not in America and only one was memorialized contemporaneously. That is, none in America.

That is a shame.


*I wish props for having gotten this far without having dropped a single f-bomb.
**See *.
***See **** below.
****Don't even start on me with that plaque, I've been there, I've seen it. One plaque doesn't cut it: not on the Chicago River, not on the side of a New York building, not in a Boston sidewalk. You do 844 plaques to the Eastland dead, then we can talk.
*****First of all, see *** and **** above. Second of all, the plaque is on a wall in the corner of City Hall, I've been there, it is not on the site of the Iroquois. It was rescued and put there after it had been put in a vault and forgotten for decades. The Iroquois--Get this, get this, you're gonna love this--The Iroquois reopened the next year! "NEW AND IMPROVED! Under new management! Chicago's finest and absolutely--Really, we mean it this time,--fireproof. TheOriental Theater." I think there was one other incarnation and then the building was razed to make way for the Ford Theater. The street number doesn't exist. You cannot even see its footprint.