If I had a baby, I'd want her to be like Grace Catherine Deming in every single way. You know what? I felt that way about my own two children. They were absolutely perfect in every way. And still are.
Sarah and Ethan in their wedding photo. They were in town Thursday as Sarah finished up her tests to be my kidney donor. Read all about it on her blog.
Here's Survivor Mom. Thanks to Coach Iris for this thoughtful birfday gift.Since my poetry group met yesterday at 1 pm, I completed my latest poem well in advance, at 12:30. I can only write under deadline pressure. Unlike my prose pieces, I can't stand to look at my poems, especially this one.
It's a love poem about a fictional personage who has a love affair with Walt Whitman. I got the idea since I'm reading a bio of E M Forster, a gay man, who was celibate until he was 38, at which time he began a series of magnificent affairs with working-class men.
Forster lived with his mom his entire life until she died. She was bossy, critical and illiberal but he felt he owed it to her to live with her since she was widowed at a young age. It was imperative she never know about his sexual preferences.
The richly-quoted text mentions Forster's fondness for the writings of Whitman, so I picked up my own copy of Whitman's writing, read some while I was on my stationery bike, and decided to try to write the poem.
My writing group loved it, but I'm too embarrassed to publish it online.
Our group was excellent. We spent a lot of time talking. One woman, Carly, said her husband went on Ancestor.com and traced their family origins. Amazingly, Carly's family can be traced to the 1300s. Doesn't that make you wanna try it?
When group was over, I walked three stores down to the Abington Gun and Ammo Shop. Frank was there again and I told him I was working on an article on the Tucson Shootings for the Intelligencer.
The NY Times is devoting lots of space to this tragedy, as they should. Read this excellent editorial by Frank Rich in which he refers to our collective denial of this latest preventable tragedy.
At the gun counter, I asked Frank if he might show me the model Glock that the shooter used. W/o blinking an eye, Frank very carefully reached into his hidden gun holster and pulled out his Glock 19, same model, he thinks, as Loughner used.
Pointing the gun away from us, he unloaded the magazine and a single bullet and laid them on the glass counter. I was all eyes.
Can I touch it? I asked.
Sure, he said, you can even hold it, if you want.
He put it in my hand.
Light as a feather.
It looks as if it's made from plastic, I said, tapping it on the outside.
Polymer, he said.
It's so simple looking, I said.
It was a beautiful machine, a clean machine, but Frank hadn't sold a single thing this Saturday. One woman came in to buy a gun, but her background check came up 'questionable.'
This doesn't mean, he explained, that she did anything wrong. There could be something wrong with the system.
His price for the Glock is $542.
About a dozen times in his 17 years of operation - he formerly worked in a bank where he feared being let go due to age discrimination - criminals try to buy guns. However, when Frank checks their background over the phone, and they are 'wanted,' this same phone call is also relayed to the local police. So while Frank is ostensibly still holding onto the phone, in come the local police.
They tell the suspect to put their hands on the glass counter.
70 percent of all police officers use the same gun as the Tucson shooter did. Does this make sense that people are armed and dangerous and walking around town? Well, don't tell that to ole Frank, who believes in free speech and cheap guns.
At the end of our conversation I told Frank I was involuntarily hospitalized for bipolar disorder. He was quite surprised.
Then you couldn't buy a gun, he told me.
You mean I'm in the system even though it was 1984?
Yes, he said.
The good thing is that b/c of HIPAA laws gun dealers cannot just check on anyone to see if they have a mental health background. The would-be buyer must have filled out the two forms necessary to purchase a gun, a federal form and a state form.
When purchase is denied, the gunshop dealer has no idea on what grounds it's been denied so a measure of privacy has been preserved.
When Frank picks up the phone to check a person's status, he is connected to 5 computers who 'talk to each other' --
- FBI
- NCIS (National Crime Information System)
- NCIC (National Crime Information Center)
- Mental health system to check for involuntarily hospitalizations
- PENNDOT to check for vehicle violations and scofflaws
I also asked about buying a gun to take your own life. What's the best way to shoot yourself, I asked. He put the gun on his throat and said that's the best way to do it. Gee, I said, I thought you put it in the roof of your mouth.
Different strokes for different folks.
Personally, I'd rather take pills, I said. I'm chicken.
I worked on my story for the Intell for several hours today before shipping it off at about 7 pm. Shucks, now what am I gonna do? I like these big writing projects.
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