Our thoughts and prayers are in Las Vegas
People load into buses destined to different strip casinos following a mass shooting at the Route 91 music festival along the Las Vegas Strip, Monday, Oct. 2, 2017. Credit: Las Vegas Sun via AP / Yasmina Chavez
Good afternoon and welcome to The Point!
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those suffering from the consequences of the horrific mass murder in Las Vegas.
Today’s issue of our newsletter will be different.
How we processed the news
This is not a day to talk about the insider angles and behind the scenes moves of New York’s political and governmental class.
At our morning meeting, Newsday’s editorial board discussed what we could say collectively in an editorial, and we started that by sharing what we were thinking about individually.
Amanda Fiscina, manager of research and digital production, brought the tragedy home as she told how her family spent the early morning praying that a cousin shot in the chest at Sunday’s concert in Las Vegas would survive. Here is a link to her account.
While there is still so much we don’t know about shooter and how he was able to execute his evil plan, we expressed our feelings of helplessness, concern and even despair. None of us could yet shake off the chills from hearing the sounds of that rapid gunfire.
Our conversation shifted from a deeper discussion of American culture and values to more specific issues of gun control and mental health. We spoke of the incredible response by first responders and of the individual stories of heroism still emerging. We talked about President Donald Trump’s call for the ties of our “shared values” to hold us together.
Among those shared values, we agreed, is a desire for safety and security, to keep ourselves, our children and innocent Americans everywhere out of harm’s way. And yet, we find ourselves, it seems, back in a war zone each time there is a mass shooting. We want to ask our readers not to let the emotions of this event quickly evaporate or for our attention to quickly move on to the next breaking-news alert.
It’s up to all of us to stay focused on this moment, to shun the opportunistic voices attempting to use such tragedies for political gain. Mark Chuisano, a Newsday amNY columnist, is working on a piece about how the worst elements of our media universe are working to sow more division at a time when we should come together.
The time now is to figure out how we can cure our nation’s ills, and to redouble our efforts to keep our fellow citizens safe, whether it be in a plaza in Las Vegas or in the mountains of Puerto Rico.
And speaking of Puerto Rico, on Sunday, deputy editor Eli Reyes told us some good news. His family had finally learned that their elderly aunt had weathered the storm, although her insulin was running low. We thought about sharing that story about what is happening to real people. Little did we know that by Monday morning we would have two personal stories to share.
We’re not going to solve any of these problems right away. But we have to keep talking about them.
The Point
Daily Point
A phone call. Bad news. This is how we live now.
What were the chances that my cousins Nick and Anthony were at that concert, at that exact spot on the huge Vegas strip, at that exact moment the shooting happened? Reality came crashing down harshly in an early morning phone call. They were there. Twenty-eight-year-old Nick had been shot.
Amanda Fiscina
Talking Point
Finally, getting word from Puerto Rico
You wouldn’t know it from looking at her, but she is the last in a long line of driven women. She is 91, barely 5 feet tall, and frail from decades of fighting diabetes.
And for the 12 days since Hurricane Maria ransacked Puerto Rico, Olga Rosa Marquez has survived without running water, gas, power or phone service (and little insulin). So, my family was relieved on Saturday when we heard from a childhood friend in Humacao, the eastern coast town ransacked by Maria and where great-aunt Olga Rosa has lived for more than half a century.
“She is fine,” we were told. “Her house was hit, not too badly. But she is fine. She’s tough,” said an old family friend who was able to visit Olga Rosa, the last of my maternal grandmother’s six siblings.
We have not been able to speak with her directly, but we now know her son who is my second-cousin, Marcos Delkis, has cared for her since the first outer bands of Maria smacked the east coast of Puerto Rico, downing trees, bending utility poles in half and releasing a fury of floodwater — disconnecting both from the outside world.
Olga Rosa is resilient, unlike what President Donald Trump described in a series of tweets this weekend on Puerto Rico and the federal response to Maria. For our family, this was a “good news story,” but for other Puerto Ricans still without gas, power and, in many cases, food it’s anything but.
When he visits San Juan on Tuesday, Trump will have a hard time persuading Olga Rosa and millions who share her situation that the federal response has been adequate.
Eli Reyes
