Newtown, Newtown, Newtown. No one can deny that was a terrible tragedy, but is it any worse than the hundreds of shootings and deaths that take place every year in our urban areas? Do Hartford parents feel any less pain when their children are murdered at the barrel of a gun than parent's in Newtown?
Today as the President of the United States visits Hartford, media accounts have stated that his visit is not open to the public. Only University of Hartford Students and faculty, Newtown parents and invited guests will be in attendance. What about the parents or family members of Hartford homicide victims. Are their deaths any less tragic than the children of Newtown?
Or is it because , as I am sure most people outside of Hartford assume, our victims are drug dealers and gang members who just happen to fall as victims of their lifestyles so the violence is just expected in our urban areas. Children in Newtown apparently don't deserve their fate to be determined by a firearm as so often happens to loved ones in Hartford.
Hartford;s mothers and fathers shed the same tears as Newtown parents. Hartford;s parents also have to face the same realization that their loved ones will never be coming through the front door again. Hartford;s pain is no less than Newtown's and our victims deserve the same recognition until real change in gun laws happens
To overlook Hartford;s families is just plain wrong. They should be in the audience today also
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15 comments:
Really Kevin? Horrible horrible horrible article. One of your worst. Bad taste and bad timing. I know this wont be posted.
Because about 90% of Hartford parents are a bunch of welfare collecting animals who have kids just so the welfare checks keep coming.................
Have you ever heard the expression"apples and oranges" ? Heres what i have observered after spending most of my life in a major city .... the MAJORITY of urban gun deaths involve people who made a decision to live a risky lifestyle. Thats it in a nutshell! I agree that all parents who lose a child to a bullet feel the same pain,but heres the difference between Newtown and any urban death in America. The parents in Newtown had no reason to believe that their 5 or 6 yr old would be in harms way while attending school.How can you say that the parent/uncle/aunt/grandparent of an inner city youth who heads out the door night after night with others who have obviously taken a criminal path are "shocked" when gun violence pays them a horrble visit. Unlike the parents in Newtown who didnt have a chance to save their child as they headed towards the front door,maybe somewhere tonight a loved one is standing in the way of the front door pleading to a son or daughter to change direction. My common sense assures me there is an extreme difference, to the point i think you have insulted quite a few with your weak comparison.
Anonymous 9:30 pm,
yes i have heard the term apples and oranges, have you ever heard the term human dignity?Not everyone shot in Hartford is a victim of their lifestyle as you suggest, and even if they are, does that mean they deserve to be shot, no more than a child in a classroom is deserving of that fate.Ask the family of Kelly Cooper , the victim of a double homicide recently on Clark Street, he did nothing more than stand up when he heard gunfire, and as a result the back of his head was blown off by the gunfire. I don't think i insulted anyone by my post. What is insulting is that someone like you who is most likely not from Hartford can sit in suburbia in judgement of people you have never met and know nothing about their backgrounds or families or even the contributions they may have made to our community. open your eyes, clearly no one is immune to the violence plaguing our country
Places like Sandy Hook exist because their children are "special", or at least more special than South Central LA or Detroit. The town had a special college fund for their special kids and MILLIONS of dollars and thousands of teddy bears are not enough. We have to get Obama and Dan in to help "heal" while we punish the law abiding gun owners and push our special agendas.
Tragedies happen. They happen all the time...just not to "special" communities.
No lie, i was born on Annawan st. in htfd and raised here . The only people i knew that got shot or stabbed were involved in dirty business. If you re-read my statement i said the "majority" not "every" victim is living that lifestyle. Sorry you cant handle it .You make it sound like city kids walking to the store to get milk and bread are getting gunned down! Personally its sad i have to comment so negatively about my birthplace. Dont you know any cops? If so ,please have lunch with them and bring up this topic. If they dont concur with me I'll buy.
Anonymous 1030 I agree with you 100 percent. I have been to countless shootings and murders and very few were innocent victims. True, every once in a while we have someone catch lead that's in the wrong place at the wrong time when shooting over usually drugs or other beef happens. Despite these people having mothers and families it is unreasonable to compare someone who knowingly engages in drugs, gangs or similarly related criminal behavior and gets shot to 5 and 6 year old who were sitting in school trying to learn when they were victimized.
For once, I agree with Kevin. Based on the photos I saw, it was an opportunity for a bunch of politicians and honchos to get their picture in the news with the president while the rest of Hartford was ignored and inconvenienced by traffic congestion. It would have been nice if at least a few families of Hartford gunshot victims were invited to participate. It also would have been nice for some of the ministers who do the vigils in the north ened to be invited. It is so hypocritical to pay so much attention to gun violence now that a bunch of little white kids were gunned down when young urban kids are getting gunned down every day in cities around the country. P.S. I am white and I support this message.
Anonymous 9:59,
For once you agree ?
From: Anonymous at 9:59. Yes, for once. Although I find your blog informative, lots of your posts are very thinly veiled attempts to humiliate people you don't like and boost those that you do. When I read them, I can see your real agenda. Maybe not everyone can. Other of your posts show a blindness to the larger picture of things. For example, on reading your post about overtime and hiring freezes, and then reading Pedro Segarra's response to that issue, I can see his point. Such a freeze would create havoc and inflexibility. Although the city is in trouble financially, your solution showed a lack of knowledge of how cities/corporations work and the actual ramifications of such a move. Perhaps less emotion and more actual knowledge would behoove your credibility when posting on such issues.
While these issues are similar, I do not believe that they are the same. In my opinion both are equally tragic, but for different reasons. These tragedies share the common bond of being perpetrated with guns, however, they have different causes.
When the national debate concerns an issue that many hold as a fundamental right, it is important to keep the talking points as clean, clear, and direct as possible when mounting a challenge that may be viewed as a limitation to that right.
Nobody can dispute that the children of Sandy Hook were anything but innocent. However, like it or not, as your post points out, urban gun deaths automatically carry an implication with it that those victims somehow bore responsibility. While this over-generalization is not the case, it is the perception.
I believe that Kevin is right, attention must be given to all innocent victims of gun violence. I actually think that more attention needs to be given to every victim, and we should not stand for ANY type of gun violence. However, for what President Obama is trying to be accomplish on the national stage, I think that, for now, keeping the issues limited to the Sandy Hook victims gives our country the best chance of actually making a small step to increase safeguards against future gun violence. These are hopefully changes that everyone will stand to benefit from.
While these issues are similar, I do not believe that they are the same. In my opinion both are equally tragic, but for different reasons. These tragedies share the common bond of being perpetrated with guns, however, they have different causes.
When the national debate concerns an issue that many hold as a fundamental right, it is important to keep the talking points as clean, clear, and direct as possible when mounting a challenge that may be viewed as a limitation to that right.
Nobody can dispute that the children of Sandy Hook were anything but innocent. However, like it or not, as your post points out, urban gun deaths automatically carry an implication with it that those victims somehow bore responsibility. While this over-generalization is not the case, it is the perception.
I believe that Kevin is right, attention must be given to all innocent victims of gun violence. I actually think that more attention needs to be given to every victim, and we should not stand for ANY type of gun violence. However, for the purpose of what President Obama is trying to be accomplish on the national stage, I think that, for now, keeping the issues limited to the Sandy Hook victims gives our country the best chance of actually making a small step to increase safeguards against future gun violence. These are hopefully changes that everyone will stand to benefit from.
Funny how Pedro has no problem putting the City's business on hold for a photo op with the president at Bradley during work hours, but can't stop at a vigil in Hartford for two murder victims that took place after business hours. He and Jared must have been hosting happy hour at Salute again. By the way, what does Pedro have to do with Newtown?
Mr. Mayor, you have not only become a major disappointment but an embarrassment as well.
Kevin, you jumped down my throat for making a lucid ,respectful comment to your post at 9:30. But at 9:59 an idiot who obviously drank your kool-aid refers to the victims in Newtown as "a bunch of little white kids" and you respond with a joke about them agreeing with you. That implies to me that you agree with them. What happened to your strong stand on human dignity? Also please answer me as to why the words "fact" and "perception" are interchangeable throughout your blog . Are people that stupid?
jumped down your throat? I think you are a little over sensitive
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