The shooting of innocent people in Buffalo is a tragedy that challenges one’s ability to understand how so much hate can fester in people.
But for me, this tragedy is personal. The alleged perpetrator was from my hometown of Binghamton, and the alleged suspect attended the high school from which I graduated. I find it extremely difficult to reconcile that a citizen of that community could perpetrate such a travesty.
Some time ago, I returned to this school as a commencement speaker and knew it to be a community of good people challenged by the economic woes of limited economic growth. I am shaken by the revelation that he had earlier plans to shoot up a subsequent commencement at the same school. I am outraged that, despite being found out and required to undergo a mental wellness evaluation, he was still deemed legally fit to acquire an assault rifle with only the inconvenience that he had to travel to nearby Pennsylvania to buy the ammunition.
That such a catastrophe could emerge from the community of my youth has shaken me deeply. I have been in touch with the Superintendent of the Susquehanna Valley (S.V.) School District and offered my condolences and support for the students and teachers. Having lived there, I know the community to be politically conservative (my parents were two of only a handful of Town of Binghamton voters who voted for J.F.K in 1960), but the reality that racist elements exist in the community with such an intensity of hatred and evil is a stain on the soul of the whole community including my own.
It is not lost that I profited intellectually from the same educational community that the perpetrator was exposed. Based on a recent visit, the school was and continues to provide an inclusive and supportive learning environment. It is this understanding that leaves me dumbfounded.
As a past member of the community of the perpetrator, I am overcome with grief for the victims and their families and friends. The pain of loss suffered in Buffalo it is unthinkable and must be unbearable for the families of the victims. Now is the time to listen to and support the victims and their families in Buffalo. As a present member of the community of educators I also mourn the loss of dignity that this heinous act has created for the teachers, students, and parents of students in the Susquehanna Valley School District. May all be motivated in time to work to root out the racism that has caused it and to challenge the social channels that profit from the spread of hatred and ignorance.