Commentary

IN MEMORIAM: Tribute to the Mass Murder Victims in Uvalde, Texas

The main ingredient of evil is hate, which is rooted in an intense feeling of hostility and aversion. While all hate does not result in crimes, a close look at hate crimes is identified by bias against race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identifies, including politics, and more.

Published

2 years ago

May 29, 2022

Oakland Post

We stand in solidarity with the entire community of Uvalde -- families, school staff, officers, grief counselors, and neighbors who bear the burden of being wounded healers.

By Rev. Dr. Martha C. Taylor

The Post Newspaper Group sends its condolences to the families of the 19 children, and two teachers who were gunned down in Uvalde, Texas, at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022 by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.

The victims, including the gunman, are mostly Latinos. The gunman started his morning by shooting his grandmother who was last reported as lying critically wounded in a local Uvalde hospital.

The Post Newspaper Group also sends prayers of condolences to the families of the one person murdered and four wounded at the mostly Taiwanese congregation, Geneva Presbyterian Church, Laguna, Ca., during its Sunday morning services on May 16.

The perpetrator, David Chou, a 68-year-old Chinese man, reportedly was motivated by hate against Taiwanese persons. Chou was taken into custody.

Last week, an article appeared in the Post Newspapers on the Buffalo, N.Y., massacre of 10 persons at Tops Supermarket by a crazed, white supremacist who specifically targeted Black people on May 14, 2022.

The focus of the article was on how the sin of evil is hidden in plain sight, not easily identifiable. Evil has no boundaries. Perpetrators of evil cut across racial, gender, and social economic backgrounds.

We stand in solidarity with the entire community of Uvalde — families, school staff, officers, grief counselors, and neighbors who bear the burden of being wounded healers.

In one way or another, we are all wounded healers who slow down long enough to acknowledge the woundedness of others.

Lord, deliver us from evil.

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

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2 days ago

April 26, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

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1 week ago

April 19, 2024

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Commentary

Opinion: Surviving the Earthquake, an Eclipse and “Emil Amok.”

Last Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City, reported as the “biggest earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884” when a 5.2 quake hit. A bit bigger. The last quake similar to Friday’s was a 4.9 in 1783.Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago. That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

In New York City, the eclipse was about 90 percent visible. Good enough for me. Though a full solar eclipse is a celestial rarity, blockages of any sort aren’t generally celebrated. My one-man play is about growing up with the eclipsed history of American Filipinos and how I struggle to unblock all that.

By Emil Guillermo

I’m a Northern Californian in New York City for the next few weeks, doing my one-man show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.”

I must like performing in the wake of Mother Nature.

Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago.

That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

And it just doesn’t happen that often.

Beyonce singing country music happens more frequently.

When I felt New York shake last week, it reminded me of a time in a San Francisco TV newsroom when editors fretted about a lack of news an hour before showtime.

Then the office carpeting moved for a good ten seconds, and the news gods gave us our lead story.

On Friday when it happened in NYC, I noticed the lines in the carpeting in my room wiggling. But I thought it was from a raucous hotel worker vacuuming nearby.

I didn’t even think earthquake. In New York?

I just went about my business as if nothing had happened. After living near fault lines all my life, I was taking things for granted.

Considering the age of structures in New York, I should have been even more concerned about falling objects inside (shelves, stuff on walls) and outside buildings (signs, scaffolding), fire hazards from possible gas leaks, and then I should have looked for others on my floor and in the hotel lobby to confirm or aid or tell stories.

Of course, as a Californian who has lived through and covered quakes in the 4 to 6 magnitude range, I tried to calm down any traumatized New Yorker I encountered by taking full responsibility for bringing in the quake from the Bay Area.

I reassured them things would be all right, and then let them know that 4.8s are nothing.

And then I invited them to my consoling post-Earthquake performance of “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host…”

It was the night of the eclipse.

ECLIPSING THE ECLIPSE

For example, did you know the first Filipinos actually arrived to what is now California in 1587? That’s 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived in America on the other coast, but few know the Filipino history which has been totally eclipsed.

I was in Battery Park sitting on a bench and there was a sense of community as people all came to look up. A young woman sitting next to me had a filter for a cell phone camera. We began talking and she let me use it. That filter enabled me to take a picture of the main event with my iPhone.

For helping me see, I invited her and her boyfriend to come see my show.

Coincidentally, she was from Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the rock that says the year the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

In my show she learned the truth. The Pilgrims were second.

History unblocked. But it took a solar eclipse.

Next one in 2044? We have a lot more unblocking to do.

If you’re in New York come see my show, Sat. April 13th, 5:20 pm Eastern; Fri. April 19, 8:10 pm Eastern; and Sun. April 21st 5:20 pm Eastern.

You can also livestream the show. Get tickets at www.amok.com/tickets

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. He wishes all his readers a Happy Easter!