A random act of senseless violence is a punch in the gut

[FightingIrish]

Sometimes a random act of senseless violence, thousands of miles away can hit home with gut wrenching brutality. A story I came across on Twitter about a crime in New York City would ordinarily be just another mind numbing headline to shake my head at and move on. This one was different and the more I think about it, the more it sickens me.

Thirty year old Davide Giri, a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, was stabbed to death by a 25 year old gang member. He was returning from practice with his soccer club. How does this affect me? Davide was from Alba, Italy, a place where I once lived and return to frequently. Alba has been a big part of my life since my father established a sister city connection with Alba in 1960. Reading the news in the Alba daily newspaper I read about the personal, family and community grief that the New York news outlets fail to even consider in their reporting.

Davide was a brilliant computer science student and a graduate of the science high school in Alba. His father is a mathematics teacher at the city’s classical high school. This is where the news hits even closer to home. My son, who had also been a soccer star, taught mathematics and science at both the Alba schools in 2011. He was taking advantage of an offer from a friend in Alba to gain some teaching and language experience in Alba.

My son had been set back in his engineering studies when he was brutally beaten and robbed in San Francisco on a fraternity pledge outing, another random act of savagery. He suffered a severe spinal fracture and was expected to spend his life in a wheelchair. He changed his major to physics with the idea that he could teach even with a disability. With great determination and an athlete’s spirit, he fought his way out of the wheelchair and was able to walk up to receive his diploma. He now teaches science and mathematics at a private high school. His encounter with random violence changed his life but didn’t end it like that of Davide.

Today we spoke with friends in Alba and their sadness about the murder in New York City was palpable. As I share their grief, I also feel shame that Davide was a victim of the society we live in, the insanity we accept as normal. The people of Alba became friends because Alba wanted a connection with what America was in 1960. Sadly, it no longer is the country they once admired and respected. I don’t know Davide’s parents but I feel a closeness to them and frustration that I cannot comfort them.

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/12/03/columbia-student-stabbed-to-death-morningside-park/

[Moostache]

1. I am sorry to hear of all of that grief and suffering

My heart goes out to all who have been so affected and impacted by random acts of violence.

I think of the words of Robert Kennedy, in Cleveland on April 5th, 1968:

...We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember - even if only for a time - that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek - as we do - nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

We cannot fight our way through this time, just as we could not in 1968 or 1945 or 1865.
Love is the only answer to Hate, the only truly universal emotion of bonding and peace.

Envy.
Anger.
Hate.
These are what stoke the passions of men and women and cause great harm.
These are also what our politicians and media use like a Pavlovian Bell for the masses.
They flow easily, are hard to contain once loosed and they destroy and destroy and destroy.
Nothing is built or sustained in these emotions, only broken.

Compassion.
Empathy.
Love.
These are hard, these are the emotions of Christ, Buddha, Ghandi and martyrs throughout history of all faiths and all persuasions. These are not even exclusively human - selflessness is observed in nature everywhere. It is what binds groups together instead of tearing them apart.
These are difficult emotions to summon, harder to sustain and the mortal enemy of those who seek power for power's sake, those who would demand loyalty and show none, those who would harm and call it "love" in spite of the obvious lie.
These are the emotions that heal wounds, bind people to each other through shared desires, and create a nation from disparity.
E Pluribus Unum.

I wish those afflicted peace and rest and shelter from the tempest of our chaotic times.
I wish them future joy to replace present heartache.
I wish them change in place of repeated tragedy.

I can only hope that humanity is capable of enough small gestures to build up critical mass and defeat the darkness enveloping us all from every angle. Holding onto that hope, however fleeting and imperiled it may feel, is the only good I can come up with, and the only way I can try to make change real.

[RussellCattle]

3. I've commented here before about what a different country this would be if Robert Kennedy had.....

.....lived and had reached the White House. A humanist. Someone with real empathy. In 1968 we needed a poet like him and the loss is still with us.

[evolves]

4. I agree with you 100%.

Unfortunately, that’s why he had to die; he was too much of a threat to the status quo.

[EarnestPutz]

2. Even without sharing your connections to this story, it is indeed "gut wrenching" and.....

....makes me, and no doubt many others who will read about it here very sad. What a loss. What a pair of losses, made even worse by your observation about what we have all lost since 1960.

[FightingIrish]

5. The story gets sadder the more I learn.

Davide’s father was teaching a class when he was informed of his son’s death. A candlelight vigil was held near the family’s home and tomorrow the city will turn out for a prayer service in the city’s cathedral. The funeral will be a gathering of the entire community. In NYC, his death will be just another statistic.

Davide’s parents are traveling to New York City to bring their son home.

[EarnestPutz]

6. Even sadder, like you said. It reminds me of the Mexican school teacher who came to.....

.....El Paso, Texas last year to buy school supplies for her classroom. She was one of the 20 people killed in the Walmart shooting. She was a statistic here, but even in the tough border town of Ciudad Juarez she was mourned by the crowds at her funeral. I hope that there are some New Yorkers who turn out and pay some respect to Davide's parents.