New West Network

My Page: Joan Opyr

Wait - Isn't Moscow in Idaho?

In November 2006, Idaho voters overwhelmingly approved HJR 2, an amendment to the state Constitution banning same-sex marriage. The wording of the amendment was very simple. It read, "A marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state." The implications, however, were broad. What would happen to those carefully-constructed guardianship agreements, wills, living wills, and the host of other expensive legal contracts that gay and lesbian people are forced to enact in lieu of the rights and privileges granted by marriage? No one was quite sure then, and no one really knows now. But we may be about to find out. Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney has proposed extending domestic partnership benefits to City employees.

Are you wearing your raincoat, your rubber hat, and your farm boots? I am, because as much as I love liberal, progressive, Blue Moscow, I have no confidence in conservative, reactionary, Red Idaho. I'm hoping there's no blow-back, but having grown up in hurricane country, I know when to board up the windows and head for high ground. [more]

Include Me Out

Last week, I attended my son's "Winter Program" at his elementary school. It was good. My son likes to sing, and the music teacher kept things lively with drums, hand bells, and a modified version of the Lindy Hop. The only downside? That painful moment when the school throws a Chanukah bone to the Jewish folk. [more]

Cutting a Rug with Moscow's Beloved Hippie Queen

Auntie Em: Why don't you find a place where there isn't any trouble?
Dorothy: A place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto?

I've learned a lot from The Wizard of Oz. I've learned that too often we confuse cowardice with wisdom, that we must pay attention to the man behind the curtain, that there's no place like home, and that there's no place on earth where there isn't any trouble. Most importantly, I've learned that "A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others." I thought about this on Friday night as I attended Lois Blackburn's standing room only birthday party in Moscow's historic 1912 Building. Lois has never sought trouble, but she's never run from it, either. And, if our hearts are judged by how much we're loved by others, then Lois has made the right choices. This is a salute to Moscow's Hippie Queen: Long may she reign! [more]

Waking Up to Global Warming

I cheered when Al Gore won an Oscar for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. I was ecstatic when he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, sharing it with the United Nations' the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. What I didn't expect, but in hindsight should have anticipated, was the far-right, ill-informed, conspiracy theory, full-throttle, total nutjob, We-Hate-Gore reaction.

It's been seven years since Al Gore won the popular vote while George Bush took the election, but you know who's still sore about it? The winners. The folks who snatched the U. S. Presidency, tucked it under the 14th Amendment, and ran ninety yards for that career-making touchdown. They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. In the immortal word of Homer Simpson, Doh! [more]

FBI Uncovers Hamilton's Ties to White Supremacist Group

The Spokesman Review has reported that Jason Hamilton, who on May 19th killed his wife, a Moscow police officer, and the caretaker at the First Presbyterian Church, before turning the gun on himself, was a member of the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group founded by the late Richard Butler. Hamilton apparently joined the Aryan Nations in 2000, two years after moving to Moscow.

A visit to the official Aryan Nations website, if you can stand it, reveals that their motto is "Violence Solves Everything!" The exclamation mark is theirs, not mine. [more]

Moscow Shooting Began With Domestic Violence

At 10 pm on May 19th, Jason Hamilton, age 37, was sitting in Mingle's Bar on Moscow's Main Street, drinking with a friend. Less than an hour and a half later, he was in the parking lot at the Latah County Courthouse, firing an M1 rifle into the Sheriff's Office, into the dispatch center, and destroying Sheriff's Office vehicles in the parking lot. Hamilton fired at least 75 rounds, shooting and killing Moscow Police Officer Lee Newbill and wounding Officer Bill Shields, before fleeing into the Presbyterian Church just across the street. There, he fired another 20 to 30 more rounds, killing caretaker Paul Bauer. Hamilton assumed a sniper's position on the second floor of the church, and from there he shot and wounded Sheriff's Deputy Brannon Jordan and 20-year old University of Idaho student Paul Hussman.

At some point, Hamilton turned the rifle on himself, ending the siege but not the nightmare. [more]

A Community in Shock

Update: At a press conference late this morning [Monday], Idaho authorities revealed that the shooter had in fact killed his wife before his rampage at the courthouse and the church, bringing the death toll to three. The gunman, who killed himself, was identified as Jason Hamilton, 37, a maintenance worker with a long history of mental illness and domestic violence. His wife, 30-year-old Crystal Hamilton, was found dead in their home with a single gunshot wound to the head. Crystal Hamilton worked at the Latah County Courthouse, where her husband unleashed a barrage of semi-automatic weapons fire Saturday night, and Jason Hamilton had done cleaning work at the church where he killed the caretaker.

The wounded police officer was identified as Brannon Jordan, and he was released from the hospital today after beng treated for leg wounds. A 20-year-old university student remained hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Update Two: Joan Opyr in Moscow has posted a complete account from the press conference here.

At six-thirty [Sunday] morning, a friend called from Virginia. She'd seen Moscow, Idaho on the national news and wanted to know if my family was okay. We are -- but that was the first we knew of the shootings that took place last night in our town.

So far, we know only the bare facts. A gunman armed with an SKS assault rifle opened fire on the Latah County Courthouse and the Sheriff's Office. He fired round after round through the windows and walls of the dispatcher's center and through the walls of the building, more than 75 rounds altogether. He shot and killed Moscow Police Officer Lee Newbill and wounded Sheriff's Deputy Brannon Jordan, who remains in serious condition. One civilian was wounded and is reported in stable condition following surgery. The gunman then fled into The First Presbyterian Church, which is located just across from the Courthouse at the corner of Fifth Street and Van Buren. There, he shot and killed Paul Bauer, the church caretaker, before apparently turning the gun on himself. [more]

Digging Deeper

I have been watching the mounting death toll at Virginia Tech with that mixture of horror and sadness that has become so familiar. I have friends in Virginia, friends in and around Blacksburg, and I have known many graduates of Virginia Tech. That this tragedy -- a mass school shooting -- has happened once again in this country is worse than shocking. It’s a temptation to surrender to hopelessness and despair. The fact is that a school shooting can happen anywhere in the United States at any time.

Columbine, Colorado. Red Lake, Minnesota. Bath, Michigan. Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Santana High School. Poe Elementary. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Where do we start? With Charles Whitman at the University of Texas in 1966? And where do we end? Never. Not in the foreseeable future if we continue to walk our present path. [more]

English as Official Bigotry

I never thought I'd say this, but I am grateful to the College Republicans at Boise State University. I would like to congratulate them for lifting the veneer of respectability off the state's immigration debate and exposing the bigotry, hatred, and ill will that motivates legislation like S1172, a bill that would make English Idaho's "official" language. Soon, I expect white will be named Idaho's official race, and blond-haired and blue-eyed our official phenotype. [Editor's note: S1172 passed the Idaho House of Representatives this afternoon, 46-20. Having passed the Senate previously, it will now go to Governor Butch Otter for signature.] [more]

Assisted Living? Not on Your Nelly!

She's at it again. My grandmother, who recently turned 85, is thumbing her nose at Death. She recently suffered a scary bout of pernicious anemia. She was in the hospital for three days, getting blood transfusions and packed cells, but she looked the Grim Reaper in the face and flipped him the bird. My grandmother is stubborn, wily, ornery and tough, all qualities I admire. I sincerely hope she goes right on being as independent as she can, and as bloody-minded as she likes. I just wish she'd stop giving her friends and family the finger as well. [more]