From Springfield to Lewiston to Colorado Springs

Let me tell you about the emotional journey I took this week.

First, Springfield. Tuesday afternoon, my friend Elaine and I took a quick road trip down to Springfield, IL. She wanted to show off her new car, I wanted to spend a little time with Abe Lincoln. We checked into our hotel and walked across the parking lot to The Cracker Barrel for dinner.

After dinner we saw the "shelter in place" order. A Springfield trooper stopped a car, the driver got out and began shooting. Then he fled. The suspect was arrested a few hours later, but it's disconcerting to be part of a "shelter in place" when you're away from home. Weird plot twist: He fled the Springfield trooper because he was on the run for a murder he may have committed 7 miles from my home. Isn't that a kick? Here I am, 200 miles away, and I'm sheltering in place to avoid a gunman from my backyard.

Then Lewiston. On Wednesday, a man in Maine took an automatic firearm and shot up first a bowling alley and then a bar. Then he fled. Citizens in Maine had to shelter in place, too, adding to their trauma. As I write this Friday night, his body has just been found. This was a tragedy. There's no more to say.

Then Colorado Springs. On Thursday a FedEx package arrived for me. It was a t-shirt I'd purchased in November 2022, and it finally arrived. Yet I'm not at all upset. For the t-shirt was from the Altreveda Beer Company in Colorado Springs.

You may not remember, because November 2022 is literally hundreds of mass shootings ago, but there was a tragedy in Colorado Springs, too. An anti-LGBT nutjob with an AR-15 walked into one of the area's few gay clubs and opened fire. 

Robert Fierro happened to be in the club that night with his wife, son and his son's boyfriend. An Army vet, Fierro went into "combat mode." He attacked the gunman from behind, wrestled the gun away and beat the shooter with it. Mr. Fierro said he was defending his family. His human family. 

I wanted to show my mad respect for Fierro somehow. I heard that his own bar, Altreveda Beer Company, was still struggling after covid so I ordered a t-shirt. Apparently a shit ton of people had the same thought and demand was massively greater than supply. Then they wanted to redesign the shirts to carry a message of diversity. Of course I didn't mind, and I will wear my Altreveda shirt proudly.

BTW, "altreveda" means "daring woman." Jess Fierro is Robert's wife, business partner and the brewmaster. In fact, she was Colorado's first Latina brewery owner. So this family was at Club Q that night out of support and love for their gay son and his lover. Again, I will wear my Altreveda shirt proudly.

But I am so fucking tired of guns. I'm afraid of guns. I'm sick of guns. No, I do not for one moment believe that anyone needs an automatic rifle to hunt squirrels. No, I do not for one moment believe that this is what our founding fathers had in mind. With Donald Trump's fondness for saying "Second Amendment people" should do this or that, I fully expect there to be political violence on top of our now garden variety mass shootings. This is possibly the only thing Speaker Mike Johnson and I agree on: There's something wrong with the "human heart" of this country. Only I believe that problem is his MAGA Republican party.

The only silver lining I see is that so many of us are sick and tired, and so many of us are going to vote, VOTE, VOTE!