The 10 Most Outrageous Civil Liberties Violations of 2006.

Slate has the list.

Opponents and Enemies

Over the last week or so I've watched a controversy erupt within the Virginia community of political bloggers. It involved an owner of a Virginia political blogs aggregator deciding to remove a blog in order to remove an offensive image (a terrorist propaganda photo of a beheaded American man) posted on that blog from his aggregator. What followed was a drama that reflected what I consider to be a troubling trend in politics and political discourse in general over the last decade - decade and a half. People seem unable to distinguish the difference between an opponent and an enemy. In this particular case, nearly all of the people involved in that controversy are obviously Virginians who care about their state, their community, and their country. They wouldn't be bothering to blog about politics if they didn't care. They are people who all care about the same things yet disagree about how to approach political issues. Yet some participants in that controversy began to speak in terms of their political opponents as "the enemy" and using military jargon to describe their own behavior toward "the enemy".
Where did people lose the capability to distinguish between a real enemy and a political/ideological opponent?

Talk radio and trashy cable news channels, with all the hours that they have to fill, have created programming that has encouraged this way of viewing political differences, certainly. As have some columnists and web sites and, of course, blogs.

It gratified me to see that there were many observers and participants in that particular tiff that did seem to recognize that there are deeper and more important things we all have in common that transcend political, religious, or ideological differences. However, I was troubled by the few folks that didn't see that and by the tactics and pressure they applied to their ideological and political brethren to try to pressure them into taking up the same extreme position of viewing their political opponents as enemies. When it really counts, will these people be able to figure out the difference?

"It's A Wonderful Life" maligned as 'commie propaganda' by the FBI

Wisebread has the details, including the original FBI memo from 1947.

'It's A Wonderful Life' has been a favorite of mine for a long time. Yes, it's sappy, yes, it's played over and over, year after year, but for me it never loses its charm. I think its message just gets more and more relevant every year. However, I'm not at all surprised to learn that it was despised by people obsessed with free market capitalism and eat up with suspicions of commies hiding under every bed. It is a film that glorifies the virtues of the working man and disdains greed and materialism.

Why?

I've spent the last two weeks or so listening to the various "smart people" in Washington discussing the idea of a troop 'surge' in Iraq, ostensibly for the purpose of 'fixing' things there. What's been driving me nuts about this debate is that none of the people who are advocating this increase in troop levels will explain WHY they think it would be helpful.

Even the folks who are advocating this surge just for the purpose of intensifying training for Iraqi military and police seem to be ducking serious questions on this issue. How will more US troops working to improve the skills of the Iraqi army address what might be the most serious problem affecting the Iraqi military and police: the obviously deep infiltration of sectarian and political militia within the ranks of the Iraqi forces?

Why would 20,000-50,000 more troops make things any better there? How would such and increase in troop levels address any of the REAL problems that are undermining security and stability there?

Baghdad ER

I managed to catch HBO's excellent documentary about the 86th CaSH (Combat Support Hospital) in Baghdad this past week. HBO will be airing it in prime time again on Memorial Day. I can't say enough good things about this program. I think it's important for Americans to see it, if for no other reason than to see the amazingly skilled and dedicated people (volunteers) that are keeping the number US war dead much lower than it could be (remember, nearly 18,000 US service persons have been injured). Thanks to the medical staff at the CaSH, the US has a higher survival rate for injured soldiers than in any previous war.

I think it's also important for us in the US to remind ourselves about the realities of war. It's not glorious and noble adventure. It's not nifty videos of "surgical strikes" that are released to CNN for our amusement. It's blood and guts. It's kids getting their asses blown off. And it's the shocked, blank expressions on their faces as they wonder what the hell happened to them.

Update*
Fresh Air's Terri gross interviewed Baghdad ER filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill on Monday. You can listen to it here.

Memorial Day Weekend

Don't forget to take a moment to think about the men and women who will never come home, and those who will come home but will never be whole again:

2,400 killed
17,774 wounded

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH

by Wilford Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in The hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine The holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Empty Spaces

Fan District residents know that today was the Strawberry Street Festival. This event is a lot of fun for the neighborhood and the kids who attend Fox Elementary School (which benefits from much of the proceeds). This year we are missing some good people. Bryan and Kathy Harvey and their daughters aren't here this year. Kathy had organized the games at the festival for the past couple of years. Bryan used to help with the week long run-up to the event, doing his goofy Elvis impersonation act, which he would perform for the kids as they made their way to their classrooms in the morning. Obviously, Stella was a student here. She's gone too. No doubt her pals are thinking about the empty space she's left behind. Their absence is hard to miss.

This year the proceeds from the children's games and activities were donated to the Harvey Family Memorial Fund. More info on that is available here.

WTF?!

So however many millions have been spent on an investigation into the Plame leak, one reporter was jailed, others were threatened with the same, a White House staffer is under indictment and Bush could have spared all of this by simply stating that he, himself, had authorized this leak of information? Do I have this right? In all of the coverage/discussion that I've seen and heard on this most recently revealed element of the Plame story I have yet to hear anyone point this out. Bush could have simply come forward with this fact from the very beginning. Instead, he apparently decided to lie and pretend that he had no idea how this information become public. Is this not a relevent aspect of the story?

Nuthin' to see here...

Blogging will be very light for the next couple of weeks. We just bought a house and will be indulging in the delicious experience known as 'moving'. I'll be busy schlepping heavy things in and out of trucks and attempting to talk some poor soul into helping me remove that massive stump at the rear of my back yard.

Holy crap...

This could be the spark that sets off the long threatening civil war that's been percolating for a couple of years now in Iraq:

In Iraq, bombing sparks fears of more violence

Today's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq, has renewed fears of an escalation in violence between the country's Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities. Protests erupted in Samarra (photo) and elsewhere around Iraq, while some Shiite leaders appealed for calm while others promised retribution. President Bush has condemned the bombing and urged Iraqis to "exercise restraint" in responding to it. Here's a roundup of the latest news:

and...

Update at 5:55 p.m.ET: Three imams were killed as Shiite gunmen attacked 27 Sunni mosques.

- Al Jazeera reports that Shiite leaders in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood "called for demonstrations against the blast." The Arab network also gives this background on the shrine that was attacked: "The shrine contains the tombs of two revered (Shiite) imams, both descendants of the prophet Mohammed. ... An attack at such an important religious shrine would constitute a grave assault" on Shiites.

And more here.

Drinking Liberally in Richmond, VA

Don't forget, Drinking Liberally (hosted by Richmond's own J.C Wilmore) is this Thursday (February 23), 7-9pm at Richbrau Brewing Co. 1214 E. Cary St. Join Richmond's 'Drinking Liberally' mailing list here. More info on 'Drinking Liberally' here.

The Black Hole

For nearly a year now I've been seeing a steady trickle of news articles about the tangle of political and religious grudges in Iraq that appear to be deeply infiltrated into the Iraqi police and security forces. Today I read another one in Newsweek. Here's a snippet:

No one knows how many death squads are currently operating in Iraq, but in the past year hundreds of murdered bodies have been found, many of them with their wrists bound execution style and a single bullet through the head. Some death squads are killing Shiites; others are executing Sunnis. In many cases, witnesses tell of victims being abducted by unidentified men in police uniforms. Almost unnoticed amid the country's chaos, the dirty war is beginning to rival the insurgency in its deadliness and in its damage to national stability.

The administration has avoided discussing this problem for obvious reasons, but it demands serious attention. When I read that US troops are arresting Iraqi cops/deathsquads it sends up a red flag. We seem to be getting pulled deeper into the complicated morass of Iraqi political and social conflicts. It's arguable that we are obligated to do this. Our toppling of the previous regime let this genie out of the bottle. That's fair. But where does it end? Is the American public ready to dive into the challenge of sorting out these deep grudges that exist between the various factions? I don't think we've had this discussion yet, not really, and it's pretty important that we figure out where we want to draw the line here...or if it's even possible to draw that line now. Maybe it isn't.

Cheney gets his flowers

From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb parked at a Baghdad market killed 21 people and wounded at least 25 on Tuesday in one of the worst attacks for weeks.

An Interior Ministry official said the 25 wounded were nearly all civilians, while a hospital source said medics were treating at least 32 people injured in the explosion.

Witnesses said people in the market spotted a man park the car and make off despite efforts to apprehend him.

Iran pulls a "freedom fry"

In response to public outcry over some offensive cartoons published in Danish newspapers, Iranians have renamed a favorite treat:

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad.

Bakeries across the capital were covering up their ads for Danish pastries Thursday after the confectioners' union ordered the name change in retaliation for caricatures of the Muslim prophet published in a Danish newspaper.

"Given the insults by Danish newspapers against the prophet, as of now the name of Danish pastries will give way to 'Rose of Muhammad' pastries," the union said in its order.

"This is a punishment for those who started misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam," said Ahmad Mahmoudi, a cake shop owner in northern Tehran.

Cartoons

They're getting in on the controversial cartoon action over at The Poor Man Institute

Shoe-Bomb-a-Palooza II: Sneakers of Mass Destruction

Digby's got the latest on the dastardly plot via leaked Al Quaeda phone conversations hot off the NSA wiretaps!

#2: Uh, Mohammed?

#1: Yes Mohammed?

#2: Something, um, doesn't sound right. Are you quite sure...

#1: Of course I'm sure. It says right here [sounds of more paper shuffling] that we are to use high explosives to gain access to the cockpit, where we then threaten to blow up the rest of plane if they don't fly it into the Liberty...

#2: Literary...

#1: Liberty, Literary... I don't... [sighs] Look, just tell the pilot "The tall one." I'm quite sure they'll know which building you're talking about. Just tell them that if they don't immediately fly the plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles, you'll blow them up with your Sneakers of Mass Destruction. They won't want that, I can assure you.

Catch the rest of the shocking exchange over at Hullabaloo!

The electronic confessional

If you haven't ever checked out the long term community art project "Post Secret", it's worth looking at. When I popped in there today I noticed that the creator of the site has compiled a book of many of the secrets that participants have mailed in, many that were posted on the site and some that were never seen. The Post Secret book will be sold in chain and indie bookstores.

Pickled NASA

From the NYT:

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé on file at the agency asserted.

Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless

Bob Harris hits the nail on the head in his quick analysis of Fox News' top of the hour news line-up (name your hour or day, it's all the same).

...In other news, not a single word about Abramoff meeting Bush a dozen times, or the trade deficit hitting an all-time high, or that the world is the warmest it has been in 1200 years.

Nope. Not one word. Instead:

Lead story: Jill Carroll. Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless.

Second lead: Bird Flu. Message: The world is dangerous. You are powerless and blameless.

Third story: Big car crash on Mexican border. (Wow. Pretty desperate.) Message: The world is dangerous. And you are powerless and blameless...

Breaking News!!!

This Modern World has gotten ahold of the super-secret transcript of the Al Quaeda, "L.A. Shoe-bomb-a-palooza" plans... hatched via Instant Messenger! Who knew?!?

You've got to be kidding

Bush has revealed the details of the dastardly terrorist plot to attack LA in 2002:

In a speech at the National Guard Memorial Building, Bush said the cell planned to use shoe bombs to gain entry to the cockpit door and then fly the plane into a Los Angeles high-rise. The president called it the “Liberty Tower” but the White House later corrected that to the Library Tower, since renamed the US Bank Tower.

There are so many things wrong with this that it's really hard to know where to begin...and frankly, I doubt people with two brain cells to rub together need my help to see that. So I won't bother getting into it. What seems pretty evident to me is that this is complete bullshit. If it's not, then I think we can stop being worried about any more terrorist attacks because clearly, they're too profoundly stupid to ever pull it off.

Indictments

Ricky Gray and Ray Dandridge indicted on 7 counts of capital murder today:

A multijurisdictional grand jury meeting in Richmond indicted Ricky Javon Gray, 28, for the New Year's Day beating deaths of local musician Bryan Harvey, 49, his wife Kathryn, 39, and daughters Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, at their home in Woodland Heights.

The panel also handed up capital murder indictments against Gray's nephew, Ray Joseph Dandridge, also 28, for the Jan. 6 suffocation killings of Percyell Tucker, 57, his wife, Mary Baskerville-Tucker, 47, and her daughter, Ashley Baskerville, 21, in the Tucker home on East Broad Rock Road.

The indictments -- the product of weeks of intensive investigation by the Richmond Police Department and other law enforcement agencies -- came with both a profound sense of relief and sadness, said Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring.

He called the killings of the two families one of the city's greatest tragedies in recent memory.

Democracy, Iraqi style

A good post on the Iraqi elections (and Iraqi politics in general) from an Iraqi point of view over at Baghdad Burning.

Are you having trouble telling these two men apart?

Nice new TV spot from Moveon.org.

"...they sometimes forget"

The lynchpin of our brilliant NSA wiretapping strategy is revealed:

BIDEN: Thank you very much.

General, how has this revelation damaged the program?

I'm almost confused by it but, I mean, it seems to presuppose that these very sophisticated Al Qaida folks didn't think we were intercepting their phone calls.

I mean, I'm a little confused. How did it damage this?

GONZALES: Well, Senator, I would first refer to the experts in the Intel Committee who are making that statement, first of all. I'm just the lawyer.

And so, when the director of the CIA says this should really damage our intel capabilities, I would defer to that statement. I think, based on my experience, it is true -- you would assume that the enemy is presuming that we are engaged in some kind of surveillance.

But if they're not reminded about it all the time in the newspapers and in stories, they sometimes forget.

(LAUGHTER)

(The entire exchange is here)

Beautiful Dreamers

My husband and I are in the process of buying an old house in one of Richmond's many older neighborhoods that are making the transition from shabby and neglected to renovated and restored. I've had old houses on the brain lately and I've been doing a LOT of reading online about caring for older homes and renovations. I stumbled accross this blog, This DecrepitVictorian House. It chronicles the ongoing renovation project of a Richmond couple's once splendid victorian house in the Fairmont neighborhood of Church Hill. I literally spent hours reading through their archives, looking at their photos, and laughing out loud several times. The best way to read it is to dig way back trough the archives and follow their 2 1/2 year adventure from the beginning. Very enjoyable and VERY educational. What I admire most about these people is their bravery at taking on such a huge project with basically zero experience and their ability to see the beautiful house underneath all of the decay, neglect, and hideous alterations that these old houses suffer.

From the Washington Post:

Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources with knowledge of the technologies in use.

Wow. Sounds like a collossal waste of time and money. I guess those pesky standards of probable cause aren't so useless after all. How much manpower and resources should our intelligence community waste on pointless wiretaps that lack enough justification to even rise to the standards demanded by FISA? What legitimate threats to national security will be lost amongst the "noise" of all the useless crap that the NSA has been chasing down under the administration's current (illegal) policy?

Liberated...

From MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men purportedly seized by police a week ago were found dumped in Baghdad in what appeared to be the latest bout of Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence in the capital, a top Sunni group said Saturday.

For everyone of those dead men there is a family that is devastated. There are friends that will never be the same. Every one of these politically and religiously motivated killings perpetrated (apparently) by people in authority within the new Iraqi government brings that nation one more step closer to out and out civil war.... and our troops are caught right in the middle of that shit. I guess this is just more of that "messy" freedom that Rumsfeld was referring to a couple of years ago.

Grins

Keith Olbermann has a little fun with professional blowhard, Bill O'reilly...again.

Craptacular Hack

As I was browsing through Sunday's Richmond Times Dispatch I ran accross Mark Holmberg's column. It was a bit about a murder in Richmond that went largely unnoticed. The victim was a person who, sadly, lived his life on the edges of society, etc, etc... Toward the end of the piece Holmberg feels compelled to make this statement:

It just doesn't weigh the same as the other slayings that week, not to mention last year's death of college student Taylor Behl. Which is why few reporters contacted Roberts' family, while Behl's mother continues to bask in the media spotlight like a contestant on some kind of strange "American Idol" for grieving family members.

What an amazingly shitty thing to say.

Plug

Today is my birthday so we went out for a really nice dinner at a semi-local place called Wabi Sabi. It's in the older downtown section of Petersburg, VA. Absolutely great food and a wonderful atmosphere. They have a website here. If you're in the Richmond, VA area and you're looking for a great dinner in a fun, laid back place, do check out Wabi Sabi. Richmond does a local gallery 'art walk' on the first Friday of every month. It's called "First Friday". Downtown Petersburg does a similar thing on the second Friday of the month, appropriately called "Second Friday". Head on down there and check out the art, then have a great dinner at Wabi Sabi.

Democratic Agenda: [ Political party seeking direction and vision. Apply within ]

After doing some reading and emailing today (the subject of both being politics) I've reached a disheartening conclusion. The Democratic party is still really fucked up. Yeah, I know. Who didn't know that? It's really bumming me out though. This is 2006. Winning a significant number of seats in the House and Senate is just so crucial, so important, it should be the number one focus of the Democratic party right now. Hell, it should have been the number one focus since November, '04. I realize the fund raisers and consultants and image polishers are already in full swing. But something really, REALLY important is absent. It's been AWOL for at least 12 years now. Democratic politicians and leaders appear to have no clue what the hell they want to do if they actually manage to win. They still can't explain to voters why they should choose them over the Republicans. Yes, yes, they're the "Not Republican" party. We get that. But in order to win, and in order to lead, there has to be something more to being a Democrat than just being "Not Republican". That won't win an election for dog catcher, much less an election against an incumbent politician who is backed by what might be the slickest, most disciplined political machine in anyone's memory. So here's some homework for Democrats, both voters and politicians.

Answer these questions:

What is the "Democratic vision"?
Why is the Democratic vision preferable to the GOP vision?
What is the Democratic agenda and the game plan for reaching the goals of that agenda?
How can this vision and agenda be effectively articulated to voters?
What would be an effective strategy to build tough, cohesive party unity among the various Democratic and progressive political and social activists and their following?

Well, feel free to reply. I think these are the questions that Democratic voters need to be bugging the party leadership and politicians about. An optimisitic, affirmative Democratic vision for the future and an agenda to get us there are absolutely crucial to achieving the big victories that us Democrats are longing for in November.

Uncle Sam wants to ogle your Googles

From AP, via Richmond Times Dispatch:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the Internet's leading search engine - a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance.

snip...

The government wants a list all requests entered into Google's search engine during an unspecified single week - a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries. In addition, it seeks 1 million randomly selected Web addresses from various Google databases.

In court papers that the San Jose Mercury News reported on after seeing them Wednesday, the Bush administration depicts the information as vital in its effort to restore online child protection laws that have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The administration's position seems to be that they 'need' these records in order to determine how frequently porn comes up in various google searches. Now I'm no lawyer, but this argument seems very weak to me. Can't the government's own goons do this research for themselves? Sit a few lackeys down in front of some PC's and give them a list of several hudred terms to google and take a look at the results.

So, since any 8th grader can figure out that the feds don't need Google customers' search data in order to get ahold of the statistical info they claim they're looking for, what do they really want this information for? Are they really after this particular bit of information or are they merely using this as an opportunity to set a precedent which will allow them to supoena search engine records for other purposes in the future?

Given the recent revelations regarding the federal governments willingness to run roughshod all over laws designed to protect the privacy of Americans from government snooping, I'm hopeful that the courts will tell the Bush administration go shove it.

Friedman Gets Flattened

Matt Taibbi, a favorite of mine, has reviewed the latest book from columnist Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat.
Taibbi is one of a few columnists who can make me laugh out loud and he doesn't disappoint this time around. Watching him poke fun at the self-important, overrated NYT columnist is good for some grins.

I think it was about five months ago that Press editor Alex Zaitchik whispered to me in the office hallway that Thomas Friedman had a new book coming out. All he knew about it was the title, but that was enough; he approached me with the chilled demeanor of a British spy who has just discovered that Hitler was secretly buying up the world’s manganese supply. Who knew what it meant—but one had to assume the worst.

More over at New York Press..

FreewayBlogger has a blog

You may or may not be familiar with Freewayblogger. It's sort of part political speach/protest, part social experiment. Freewayblogger has started a weblog in the last few months. Go check 'em out at both sites (if you haven't already). Who knows? Maybe it will inspire you to do a bit of you own freewayblogging. Regardless, the pics are interesting so, enjoy.

World of Mirth to reopen today

The story is in the Richmond Times Dispatch. Let's give WoM some support as they get up and running again. Go spend some money there.

Common Thread

A friend of mine showed me a recent post on Riverbend's blog, 'Baghdad Burning'. It's called "Thank You For the Music" (which is about the sudden loss of a good friend to the daily violence in Iraq) . Riverbend lives in Iraq and blogs about her personal experiences and life in general in US occupied Iraq. Reading it, I couldn't help but be reminded of all the touching and kind tributes to Bryan Harvey and his family that I have read in the last couple of weeks. It's a great post and reading it evoked a strange mixture of emotions, but I was left with this thought: Coping with the events of the first week of January gave us here in our little part of the world just the tiniest taste of what it must be like to live in a place like Iraq, where senseless, anonymous and brutal violence take the lives of scores ordinary people on a nearly daily basis. Or Pakistan, where a recent botched CIA attempt to kill a Bin Laden crony resulted in the deaths of 17 ordinary people. Imagine the anger and bewilderment that we're feeling here...then multiply that by about a thousand.

Keeping the focus on what matters...

Over the past week, like so many other Richmonders who were struggling to process the terrible events unfolding in their city, I found myself spending way too much time reading commentary on internet message sites. Some of it was interesting, some of it was disturbing, and some of it was very touching. A lot of it was pretty pointless.

What I found most curious was the tendency of some commenters to link the murders committed by Dandridge and Grey to Richmond itself, as a reflection of our city's high murder rate.

That really bugged me. The two alleged killers weren't from Richmond. They came here from somewhere else to commit their crimes. Richmonders were shocked and bewildered by these murders.

I think it's worthwhile to point out that Richmond's homicide rate was down in 2005, by nearly 10%, from the previous year. If you've lived here long enough you know that parts of our city that once seemed hopelessly troubled with crime and decay are in the process of improving. Jackson Ward, Highland Park, the section of Woodland Heights south of Semmes Ave., the Carver neighborhood, etc are all experiencing renewal. Even our once desolate downtown area seems poised for a new life.

So enough already with beating up on Richmond.

I have a better idea. Do something positive in your community to make it a better place. Organize a neighborhood clean-up. Start a 'get to know your neighbors' social group. Volunteer some time tutoring kids in public schools. Have a fundraiser to raise cash for community projects. Everything someone does, big or small, that sends out a positive vibe can really add up.

All Things Must Pass...

Yesterday, I finally took down the Christmas tree ornaments. It was January 10th. When I put everything up, back before Christmas, I had intended to leave the tree and the house decorated until January 6th. It's the "12th Day of Christmas", after all, and I'm also too lazy to get everything undone before then. This year, though, I was days later in getting this somewhat melancholy chore done. I guess it's because, for me, time sort of stopped on January 2nd.

Early morning, Monday January 2nd, I got a phone call from my mother, a long time resident of the Woodland Heights neighborhood in my city, Richmond, VA, asking me if we knew Stella Harvey.

For Richmonders, the rest of the story will seem sadly familiar. My mother related to me that 9 year old Stella, and the rest of her family (parents Bryan and Kathy and little sister Ruby) had been found murdered in their home on New Year's Day.

After that call, everything seemed to stop.

Stella was born just a few weeks before my own daughter. They attended the same elementary school. Her mom, Kathy, ran a cool store in my community called "World of Mirth" in which I loved to shop. Her dad was a well known, talented musician who had also been a fixture in my world within a world, the Fan District and greater Richmond music and arts scene. I had crossed paths with these people for years. The connections, both direct and indirect, were numerous. I did not know them well but they were a predictable part of my universe.

The days that followed that terrible news were filled with tears, phone calls, vigils and obsessive attention to the local (and national) news. Terrible details of the brutality of the crime. Terrible images in my imagination of their final moments. Endless speculation about the identity of the killer(s) and their possible motives. I struggled mightily to try to understand who could do such a ghastly thing to such lovely people. I think everyone who knew them, and many that only knew of them, were engaged in the same.

Time seemed to stop.

Despite the terrible sadness I was feeling in that week that followed, I was amazed and deeply touched by the beautiful things that were revealed around me. The love and care between the people in my community, the loyalty to the dignity and memory of the Harveys, the diligence of the local print media in covering the story with the same sense of dignity and care, and the determination of those that were suffering to push ahead and make a beautiful legacy for these people and push off from the images of the horror that Bryan, Kathy, Stella and Ruby suffered.

I attended both of the vigils. The one at the Unitarian Church was the better of the two, in my opinion. It was good medicine for people in terrible pain. Quiet, brief, dignified and poignant.

The second vigil, outside of the Harvey home, was more of a neighborhood thing with a considerable amount of the focus being on the issue of neighborhood crime. Understandable. Also, there was a noisy generator powering a giant array of police lights. That was pretty distracting.

But, something really special happened after all the talking and speeches were done. People began to surround the front yard of the house itself and place their candles, pictures, notes, flowers, etc, all around the perimeter of the front yard.

The house itself, a dark and empty thing...seemed as though it was also dead. It had been lurking throughout the week, a dark and foreboding monument to sadness and death (it seemed to me) but the neighbors and friends spread their loving trinkets and expressions of grief all around. It felt as though they were banishing the bad mojo, and allowing the home to be what it was before: a place where love and compassion lived every day.

After the vigils came the memorial, which I did not attend. I decided to stay home and make cookies with my 7 year old son instead. I needed a breather. Then the arrest came.

With the memorial over and the arrest of the alleged killers, it seems that many of us are trying to push ahead. Time really didn't stop, after all. Here it was, January 10th, and my tree sat there, covered in ornaments and the lights on my porch still twinkled.

So I put the ornaments away, took down the porch lights (most of 'em anyway). It's time to turn around now and look toward the future. It's time to take this experience and figure out what it will mean for me, in my own life. I know I want to always remember what wonderful people are all around me, all of the time. I won't forget the deep love I felt connected to as my community shared its grief. I also want to remember the terrific example that Bryan and Kathy set: to live your life well, laugh a lot, and be generous with your gifts. Remembering that and living it honors their legacy. I imagine they would be proud of it.