The trial for the person accused in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting held opening arguments this week and I wasn’t in the courtroom.
This is not a lament.
Covering the aftermath of that shooting in October 2018 that left 11 people dead wrecked me. I felt fortunate to be able to write about my home city for a national audience, to give context that other national media did not have. I felt angry that I had to write about my home city for a national audience to give context that other national media did not have.
A mass shooting in Pittsburgh was inconceivable to me at the time (it frankly still is) but since October 2018 there have been 2,340 mass shootings (at least as of the moment I am writing this) in the US. That’s not the number of people killed, mind you, that’s the number of shooting incidents where four or more people are shot and wounded or killed, excluding the shooter.* I recently wrote about what little has changed since then in Pennsylvania law, to address gun control or hate crimes.
I’m usually not comfortable writing this kind of first-person account; it feels a little ridiculous to be talking about my feelings in relation to a shooting where 11 people died and a community was terrorized. But I think journalists are especially bad at taking care of our mental health and sometimes the work suffers as a result, which means you can’t successfully do the basic function of journalism which is keeping people informed. If you lose empathy for the people you write about it becomes that much harder to connect with readers. And then what’s the point? To gain more Twitter followers? To what end?
I also realize not every journalist has the luxury to pick and choose their assignments like this — it’s something I’ve only been able to achieve after many years of slogging through many terrible assignments from many terrible editors in many dysfunctional newsrooms. What kind of journalist does it make me if I decide what to write about (or not) based on factors other than newsworthiness and how much I’ll be paid (the latter, again, a privilege I acknowledge not everyone has: sometimes you just have to pay the bills).
So I was not in the courtroom but ended up having a bit of the horror of that day shoved back in front of me anyway, when I got anti-semitic emails from groups who say they have passed out flyers and want to see the accused gunman freed, followed by vague threats that Pgh will be “sorry.” I am told I was not the only person to get these emails, and yes, these have been reported to the authorities.
I don’t know what the takeaway is here, but if you are feeling overwhelmed by all the news about the trial, there’s a group called the 10.27 Healing Partnership offering resources. Obviously call 911 if you receive a threat or see the hate stickers or flyers that showed up in a Squirrel Hill playground the other day.
I will most likely be keeping my distance.
I did some work…
Since last we met, Allegheny County held municipal elections and voted for a progressive as county executive. I wrote about this progressive wave and how it may have been the last gasp of the political machine that used to run the Democratic Party in this area.
I’ve done a lot of work for the Capital-Star I’m proud of, here’s hoping they renew my contract (which ended May 31).
Also it’s Square Cafe’s 20th anniversary, I wrote about it for NEXTPittsburgh. Not everything is terrible :)
reading/recommending
Generation Connie is a lovely tale about all the Asian-American women of a certain age named for the groundbreaking journalist. LOL wtf is this. And did the NY Times really delay announcing the hire of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Carreyrou so as not to make convicted felon Elizabeth Holmes pull out of that fluff piece on how she’s changed (and shouldn’t go to prison or something?) because that’s terrible (Holmes reported to prison on May 30 to begin serving her 11-year sentence, btw. Go read Bad Blood, it’s spectactular).
One of my favorite writers on one of my other favorite writers.
This is tacky as hell and I think I love it.
Pls follow me on Instagram so I can get off Twitter forever, tysm.
*source: Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund