In Memoriam

There's an inter-faith memorial service this evening in honor of the victims of Friday's tragic shooting at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, NY.  CNN has a list of the 13 victims, and The Boston Globe has compiled some tributes from their families.  One woman was an Iraqi mother of three who had "survived car bombings in Baghdad."  Another was a Ukrainian woman who was not supposed to be at the Center that day, but had gone in in response to a request for help.  She spoke 3 languages.

Survivors talk about the trauma of emigrating to the U.S. to escape conflict from their countries only to face this at a place they considered "safe," a 70 yr old center founded by immigrants that also hosted weddings and dinners, and helped immigrants prepare for US citizenship:

A Kurdish woman turned to Ms. Gruss and said, “They fire in Iraq. They fire in the United States.”“She was almost defeated in a way,” Ms. Gruss said. “She couldn’t find a safe haven. She was one of those who had to walk over the mountains from Iraq to Turkey to escape Saddam. Then they’re shooting at her.”

What a terrible, terrible tragedy for new Americans trying to build better lives here.