It had been a wonderful Thanksgiving afternoon filled with delicious traditional food and the sound of laughter from what remains of my once large family. The day was turning out to be everything I hoped it would be.
We had just finished our wonderful meal and left the table to continue our conversation in the living room. We decided to put the TV on in the background where we could “channel surf” between the plethora of Holiday movies, the football games, and to see what was still happening around the world, a news program.
After a few minutes, the TV wound up tuned to CNN where a headline graphic was announcing “Breaking News.” It caught my eye, and I decided to turn my attention to the newscast. It was then that the reporter announced that one of the two National Guardsman who had been so critically wounded in a vicious and unprovoked ambush while on patrol at a D.C. train station the day before had died.
My mood changed instantly from joyous to deeply sorrowful.
Her name is Sarah Beckstrom. Hailing from West Virginia, Sarah was just 20 years old. She had been on deployment as part of President Trump’s ordered “crackdown on crime” in several American cities, including Washington D.C. As some of the early details were being revealed, the more shocked, outraged, and disheartened I became.
Her assailant (whom I will NEVER name) was a 29-year-old legally documented Afghan immigrant who worked at one time for the CIA in Afghanistan. He was a husband and a father. He drove over three thousand miles from his home in the State of Washington to assassinate two young people whom he never met. As of this writing, his motive has not been made clear.
Think about that. Just how much hate can one person harbor in their heart to travel that great distance to cause so much pain and sorrow to not only the victims and their families but to his own as well? And to commit this heinous act on Thanksgiving, a day when we here in America express our gratitude for the glorious gifts we have been given and look to share with EVERYONE? Despicable is not a strong enough description.
It boggled my mind and caused me deep reflection about the gift of life and love I had been given that very day by my own family. I had to take a moment to empathize with all those affected by this cowardly deed and how this day would never be the same for them.
Then, in another wrong-headed attempt to project his own empathy, the President, without knowing the ultimate motivation, exacerbated the situation and made it political by claiming that the killer was granted admission to the U.S. by the Biden Administration. However, Mr. Trump failed to mention that the assassin was given asylum by his own.
But, at this moment, NONE of that is the point, or should be. For me, at this most sensitive time, it is not a political issue, and I will not look to make it one. Instead, as individuals AND as a society we need to search deeply within ourselves as to why things like this are happening with such increased frequency in the first place.
Is it some type of ancient tribalism? Or is fear and, therefore, hatred of others simply deeply embedded within our DNA? Has our society changed so much that this kind of wanton violence has become acceptable?
From the assassinations of a business executive in New York City, Democratic politicians in Minnesota, to Conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and now this, these incidents are becoming almost common.
Even if the answers aren’t obvious, we must ask ourselves: “what is going on here” and “what can we ALL do to stop it?
PS: The second Guardsman critically wounded in the same attack, 24-year-old Andrew Wolf, is in serious condition but he is expected to survive.
Frank LoBuono is a Nyack Resident, photographer, blogger and retired CBS News journalist.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are those of this independent writer and not the Nyack News & Views editorial staff. We welcome submissions from anybody who is interested in publishing their thoughts, ideas and perspectives about issues facing our community, both large and small. Please send submissions to info@nyacknewsandviews.com.