Processing the Horror
It's taken me several days to process the horrifying shooting at the Capital Gazetter for two reasons. First, I knew Wendi Winters. We worked on a project together over 30 years ago...a fundraiser for the NYC Opera that had lost its costume collection in a warehouse fire. I then saw her again, in of all places Castine, Maine, the small village that I moved to after leaving NYC in 1989. Her father was an alum of the Maine Maritime Academy and she, her husband, father and mother were there for reunion weekend. I think she had one child by then, maybe two. I don't remember exactly. I heard my name called as I walked down Main Street and was surprised to see Wendi loping across the street, smile a mile wide, her tall presence and energy making her stand out no matter where she was...a small village in Downeast Maine or the middle of Fifth Avenue in NYC. I can't wrap my mind around the horror she must have experienced as the shots rang out.
Second, as a freelance writer for the Pacific Island Times, I was recently on the receiving end of a second-hand threat due to the series of articles I wrote exposing illegal fishing in Yap. The threat was mild compared to what the Gazetters staff and so many other journalists have experienced. Sugar in the tank of the car I was driving at the time was the message. It never happened. The car was taken back by the owner and it was then that the threat was made to another person who was driving it. It was incorrectly assumed that it was my car. Now that I look back on it, I did have a series of three flat times over about a month's time, but I thought it was due to nails that were raining down from construction at the end of the road leading to my apartment. Maybe. Maybe not, I discovered them each when I got into the car after it was parked overnight in front of my apartment.
I was lucky. So far. Wendi was not. My heart goes out to her family as my mind tries to understand. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-wendi-winters-20180628-story.html
Second, as a freelance writer for the Pacific Island Times, I was recently on the receiving end of a second-hand threat due to the series of articles I wrote exposing illegal fishing in Yap. The threat was mild compared to what the Gazetters staff and so many other journalists have experienced. Sugar in the tank of the car I was driving at the time was the message. It never happened. The car was taken back by the owner and it was then that the threat was made to another person who was driving it. It was incorrectly assumed that it was my car. Now that I look back on it, I did have a series of three flat times over about a month's time, but I thought it was due to nails that were raining down from construction at the end of the road leading to my apartment. Maybe. Maybe not, I discovered them each when I got into the car after it was parked overnight in front of my apartment.
I was lucky. So far. Wendi was not. My heart goes out to her family as my mind tries to understand. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-wendi-winters-20180628-story.html
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