A new reason for hope after more mass murders
May 27—Only once have I covered a story of mass murder by a gunman and left it with a sense of hope. Then I learned hope is more fragile than bone china.
I was working at a newspaper in Pittsburgh when a chilling crime occurred a few hours away in the bucolic region of Pennsylvania known as Amish Country.
A 32-year-old gunman, married with two daughters, murdered and wounded girls in an Amish school. Why girls were his target remains unknown.
He armed himself with a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, a stun gun and 600 rounds of ammunition. The gunman also brought along ties to immobilize his victims and boards to barricade the doors of the one-room school.
Once inside, the gunman selected his prey. He began by setting free 15 boys, a pregnant woman and other women with infants.
Then the man shot 10 girls, killing five of them. I remember the names of those who died. They were Naomi Rose Ebersol, 7; Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12; Marian Fisher, 13; and sisters Mary Liz Miller, 8, and Lena Miller, 7.
The death toll could have been higher. It was 2006. The Amish school had no phone, and Amish kids didn't carry cellphones. Getting emergency help at an Amish school was more difficult than in almost any other setting.
A 20-year-old teacher probably saved lives. She escaped after the gunman momentarily left the building to retrieve something from the borrowed pickup he drove.
Terrified but thinking clearly, the teacher ran to a farm with a telephone. State police stormed the school soon after. The gunman fired his shotgun at advancing troopers before shooting himself to death.
The killer had no criminal record. He made his living driving a milk truck. He'd never had trouble with Amish people. They simply were more gentle and vulnerable than other prospective victims.
In suicide notes, the gunman said he was angry with God and himself, mainly because of the death of a newborn daughter nine years earlier.
If the killer craved attention, he received it posthumously. Hundreds of reporters descended on the rustic crime scene.
Amish people get around in horse-drawn buggies. Many are farmers. They don't own guns or television sets, and they don't like being photographed. All the cameras drove them inside their homes to grieve alone.
Violence in Pennsylvania's Amish Country had mostly been fictional until the schoolhouse executions. The 1985 movie Witness starred Harrison Ford as a hunted police detective hiding in Amish Country. A box-office hit, it expanded the area's tourist industry and cast attention on Amish life.
Amish families spoke sparingly after the gunman's attacks. Their actions were more important.
A grief-stricken country donated generously to help victims of the shootings and their families. In turn, Amish people shared the money with the widow and children of the gunman.
Forgiveness is a tenet of Amish culture. Through rage and sorrow, Amish families helped people who were connected to them only by terrible crimes.
Leaving Amish Country after several days, I hoped the families had set a tone for a better America.
Six months later, I was on the road again to cover another mass murder. A student killed 32 people and wounded 23 more at Virginia Tech before committing suicide.
Mass shootings in schools, stores and nightspots have continued. The killings this week of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, are the latest. They followed the murders of 10 Black people and the wounding of three other people in a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.
Police shot and killed the gunman in Uvalde. The suspect in Buffalo is in custody. Both were 18 years old, and both bought rifles legally.
New Mexico has its share of young criminals. Santa Fe jurors recently convicted a man of first-degree murder in the shooting of a basketball prodigy. The shooter was 16 when he committed his crime at a party during the predawn hours. Where were the parents?
New Mexico too often trails the country in best practices in parenting and education. This year provides the possibility for a breakthrough.
Voters in November will be asked whether more money should be withdrawn from New Mexico's largest endowment to expand early childhood education. It's a program that can improve the fortunes of a state with only 2 million residents.
The proposed amendment can help young people be better parents. It also can get kids off to a good start in school — the most important momentum a state can muster.
This program would increase the number of high school and college graduates while reducing crime and prison populations.
Kindhearted Amish people were one reason for hope. A smarter approach to education is another.
I intentionally did not name the gunmen in this column. Writing about evil is part of being a newspaperman. Remembering who was important is another.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
