The
woman who was shot, after a harrowing chase, was nuts. Post-Partum depression
makes a person nuts. In searching through her past you find that she recently
lost her job as a dental assistant because she was too rough. That is
horrible when, if you are a coward like me, you need laughing gas to get your
teeth cleaned. Agreed, she tried to crash the White House gates.
You can’t crash through those barriers even if you have a tank. But she
tried. Just the fact that she tried should give us pause or give us
someone to root for. The White House, often referred to as the People’s
House, hasn’t been the People’s anytime except when Jerry Ford, Jimmy Carter,
and Bill Clinton were in charge of White House touring policy. Although it’s
unlikely, maybe she wanted to talk to the President? That wasn’t going to
happen. He was too busy dealing with a Congress that has shut down the
government. Perhaps that was what was upsetting to her. Based on
her erratic behavior, she was confused and wanting to escape.
Some
of you may think that’s absolutely ridiculous. She was surrounded by police, it
would have been impossible for her to escape the mighty clutches of the Capital
Police, (the biggest bunch of bullies you can ever encounter.) It is true
however, that when you are in a panic you don’t realize what you are
doing. You could feel a story coming, Right?
In
1963, my parents left on their yearly vacation to the Catskill Mountains with
their friends. They usually went to the Fallsview Hotel in Ellenville
N.Y. That year, instead of my grandmother coming to stay with us, my
parents decided that I was old enough to stay alone, and even take care of my
baby brother. They were incorrect. I was a kid who could not be
trusted because I would always find a way to do something that I was not
allowed to do. It was thrilling to be on my own and I wanted to share the
joy with as many friends as possible. My parents decided to let my Uncle
Phil drive, which meant their tangerine Dodge was left behind in the garage.
First
I called my friend Judy Botfeld, who lived in Dover N.J. (about a half hour
away) and invite her over. Judy was a bit older and had a driver’s
license. She agreed to come but she had to take a bus because her parents
car was unavailable. Next we called my friend Beth Anne Cohen, who lived
about an hour away in Newburgh, N.Y. (Where we live now). I told Beth
that Judy and a few friends were going to take my parents car and drive up to
see her. And so we set off on our adventure.
We
had to be careful not to run into any of my aunts or cousins who lived in
Newburgh, because we were not supposed to be there and certainly not with that
car and a driver they didn’t know. It was a wonderful day. We went
out to eat. Went shopping. Hung out at Beth’s house. And tracked down cute
boys. Things that girls like to do. Late in the afternoon we realized we
needed to get back to Boonton and Judy had to catch another bus back to
Dover. We knew we needed to do that before the sun went down.
We
were laughing and singing as we rounded the corner to put the car back in the
garage. And as merrily we road along, I saw my cousins and my aunts out on the
lawn frantically waving their arms. “Caught like a Rat in a Trap.” I
yelled for Judy to turn the car around! I was sitting right next to her so it
shook her up more than I could have imagined. She did not turn around.
That was too complicated but she started to back up. Fast!
Anyway,
the stories are not comparable but the reactions and the panic are so
similar. Miriam was a mixed up woman riding around with a child in the
back seat. Why didn’t the police simply shoot her tires to halt the
vehicles? Why, seeing that there was a kid in the backseat did they need
to look for a direct hit? She was unarmed and she was frightened. They
closed off and locked down the White House and the Capital. By the time
they shot her no one in any of those buildings was in harms way. I guess if you
have Tactical weapons you will find a way to use them. And they
did. One dead, baby is fine, I’m sure another lunatic will avail
themselves to well armed, furloughed, police of some kind. I simply can’t
wait for the next episode. We’re
just sayin’.. Iris
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