After several minutes of ethnic pride, what was this blessing's purpose? Was the blessing to bring solice to the families and loved one of the victims? Was the blessing to evoke a common root upon which the Tucson community could rebuild anew? Or was the blessing another tacky display like the T-Shirts handed out at the memorial.
It is generally agreed that the purpose of the Tucson memorial was to express a national sympathy with the grieving families. The President's homily helped on that score somewhat; all the other trappings did not. We did not need the cheering, the shirts, and an odd Indian blessing for deceased Catholics/Christians and a Jew. Sharky&Sharky also wish that the President would have expressed concern for the sick young man, Mr Loughner.
The Pima Community College could have connected the dots and surmised that Mr Loughner was sick and getting sicker (LA Times):
Loughner would grin, speak gibberish, laugh to himself and clench his fists, said Steven Cates, 21, one of three poetry students who said they feared Loughner would bring a gun to school.
Amy Jensen, 26, said she dropped the class because Loughner created a "chemistry of uneasiness.... He just creeped me out." She said she pictured him with a gun.
Cates said he tried to strike up conversations with Loughner when he'd see him on campus. He said he had a gut feeling about Loughner: "If something did happen, maybe I wouldn't be on his list of targets."From the first day of a summer algebra class, the instructor and students were unsettled. "How can you deny math instead of accepting it?" he challenged the instructor, Ben McGahee.
"One lady came to me at the end of class and said, 'I'm really scared for my life,'" said McGahee, who alerted administrators.
The next day at 8:20 a.m., school counselor DeLisa Siddall pulled Loughner out of class to talk.
"He gives me this dark, evil look like, 'You're trying to single me out; you're trying to get at me,'" McGahee said.
Siddall, who recounted the conversation in an e-mail to the math department chair and others, told Loughner he had been disruptive.
"He said he paid $200 for the class, so he should have the right to speak," she wrote. He also told her that he felt "scammed" because he had taken other courses, failed them and not gotten his money back.
"This student was warned," Siddall concluded. "Since his resolution was to remain silent in class and successfully complete the course, I had no grounds to keep him out of class."
A report on the disturbance was filed June 3 with campus police.
During the second week of class, Loughner shaved his head. He continued to have outbursts, but at other times would withdraw, doodle and listen to his iPod.
On June 14, in an e-mail to a friend that was provided to the Washington Post, Loughner's classmate Lynda Sorenson wrote: "We have a mentally unstable person in the class that scares the living crap out of me. He is one of those whose picture you see on the news, after he has come into class with an automatic weapon.... I sit by the door with my purse handy."
After Loughner accused McGahee of violating his 1st Amendment rights, administrators removed him from the class.
In the fall semester, trouble began almost immediately. This time, it was during biology.
Loughner turned in an assignment late and was told by his instructor that he would receive only half credit. Loughner's reaction was so intimidating, the instructor called campus police.
"Loughner was insistent that his freedom of speech was being taken away," the Sept. 23 police report said. The officer noted that during questioning, Loughner's head "was constantly tilted to the left and his eyes were jittery and looking up to the left."
Mr. Loughner's actions provided Pima Community College enough information that it could have strongly urged, if they cared, that Mr Loughner be classified. Quoting Gov Rendell:
Had this man been classified, had he been committed civilly at any time prior to his purchasing the gun from Wal-Mart, he would have in fact been denied access to that firearm
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