Posted 30 April 2023. By Pasckie Pascua
NEW York Times: “Shooting of Teen Who Rang Doorbell at Wrong House Unsettles Kansas City.” Residents and friends of the victim were searching for answers as the 84-year-old homeowner surrendered to the authorities on two felony charges. / “New Details Emerge in Deadly Upstate Shooting of Woman in Wrong Driveway.” The man who fired on three vehicles that mistakenly drove up his driveway, killing a young woman, had a reputation as a sour character who did not like visitors.
SCARY although I am not frightened sort of. Extra caution is imperative though. We may know our neighbors but we don’t really know. You know what I mean? When I was new in Asheville, maybe year 2000, I experienced a similar horror. As you can deduce (!) I am still here stayin’ alive but I was also shot at on a driveway of somebody else’s house in a common community.
Me and my friend Jenni fell of a ditch, I mean the car. I am not sure if it was already cellphone days but I reckon, not yet. So I walked to the nearest house, intending to ask for help or probably use their phone to call the house (our house). Two three steps to the property, a shotgun went boom! Though I was so stunned to realize it was a firearm that was aimed at me. It was also dark. No street light porch, whatsoever.
Jenni screamed so I ran. One more shot, I could have been hit. Thank God/dess, no second shot. The owner of the house, didn’t even know if it was she or he or they or nonbinary, simply strode back in like heck it was a damn possum! LOL!
ON a parallel subject, let me share thoughts that I previously typed up as comment to a Facebook post.
I AM a relative foreigner in America. I covered several coup d’etats in Asia as well as countryside war in the Philippines. I also survived military rule or Martial Law, 1970s-1980s. I started as a police reporter when I was 14. Etc. I saw blood death destruction as an active journalist, community organizer, and Leftist activist.
In those days we somehow knew or had ideas where the bomb would blow up stuff or when bullets flew. And So I slept good and enjoyed fiestas and rowdy crowds and basketball in the plaza. Asia is a crowded world, you see. But I wasn't uneasy in public places despite cops in civvies tailing us because we reported stuff or we supported activists. I even knew those cops, regardless they were on civvies as disguise.
But in the U.S. it is so different. Or it evolved this way. Morbid unease. We don't know where and when the AR 15 will mow people down and who these people are. The shooters aren't war combatants or hitmen or gangland soldiers. They can be nerdy kids, store owner who smiles at neighbors, or a quiet dude with no parking tix ever.
So from organizing park concerts and club gigs and many public gatherings here in America for two decadess, I quit. I don't want to usher people to danger. I don't even go out as much anymore. I am cool though. There are still a lot to enjoy in America.
Meanwhile, I don't own a gun ever. I am old. I'd rather stay in. Write memories, paint to stretch bones, do gardening, enjoy streaming TV with a dog and two cats.
This is America. Complex, contradictory, but cool in so many ways. Enjoy blessings. Hope each morning that another mass shooting shudder doesn’t kick off the day.
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