Mr. President, We Are Hurting
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 ❚ ELPASOTIMES.COM ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK JORDAN ANCHONDO • ANDRE ANCHONDO • ARTURO BENAVIDEZ • JAVIER RODRIGUEZ SARA ESTHER REGALADO MORIEL • ADOLFO CERROS HERNÁNDEZ • GLORIA IRMA MARQUEZ MARÍA EUGENIA LEGARRETA ROTHE • IVAN MANZANO • JUAN DE DIOS VELÁZQUEZ CHAIREZ DAVID JOHNSON • LEONARDO CAMPOS JR. • MARIBEL CAMPOS (LOYA) • ANGELINA SILVA ENGLISBEE MARIA FLORES • RAUL FLORES • JORGE CALVILLO GARCIA • ALEXANDER GERHARD HOFFMAN LUIS ALFONZO JUAREZ • ELSA MENDOZA DE LA MORA • MARGIE RECKARD • TERESA SANCHEZ LA FRONTERA DE LUTO: PASEÑOS Y JUARENSES COMPARTEN SU PÉSAME Y DOLOR MR. PRESIDENT, WE ARE HURTING EDITORIAL Dear Mr. President: ones, El Paso quickly brought so much water and ice to Today is a tragic day to visit El Paso. their aid that donors were turned away. Less than a week ago, 22 of our own were killed as they When a gunman passed over one man to target others, shopped in a neighborhood store, as they prepared for that man didn’t turn and run. He grabbed soda bottles from their weekends, as they provided for their families. the shelves and started throwing, trying to distract the Most of them were from El Paso. Eight were from our gunman from his evil intent. He was shot twice because of sister city of Juárez, steps away. it. His name is Chris Grant. He is from El Paso. Today, you will find us in the agony of our mourning. As Grant lost blood and stumbled from the store, a The violence that pierced El Paso, that draws you here woman helped stop the bleeding. She helped rush him to today, is not of our own community. An outsider came medical care. She had been shopping on her day off. Her here, to shatter our city, to murder our neighbors. A white name is Donna Sifford. She has been in El Paso since 1992. man from another Texas city came to target the more than She is a port director for Customs and Border Protection. 80% of us who share Hispanic roots. They met again later at the hospital and embraced. Now, We are horrified to have witnessed this violence in our they are friends as well as neighbors. city. This is El Paso. This is not the El Paso we want the world to know. This is Make no mistake. Today is not a happy day. Our city is in a city with a deep tradition of racial harmony. It is a city of pain. We were targeted by a white supremacist, and we are warm, compassionate, patriotic, accepting residents who suffering. We will remember the names of the 22 neighbors did not deserve this suffering. who died. Their names are printed here. But Mr. President, while we are sorry to have seen such The violence of that day may have been a product of his violence and felt such pain, one other thing must be said hatred. It was not a product of our community. about today. Our community did not deserve this. Today is a very good day to visit El Paso. Our compassion for one another goes back to the city’s Today, in spite of our suffering, you will see the city that founding. makes us proud. We were pioneers when a basketball coach from a small As our neighbors lay bleeding in hospitals, El Paso stood college we now know as UTEP started five African Amer- in line, in 104-degree heat, to donate blood, so much blood ican players in a national-championship basketball game that organizers had more than they could handle. As families waited to be reunited with missing loved See EDITORIAL, Page 3S People visit a memorial Monday outside the Walmart in El Paso where a mass shooting took place on Saturday. MARK LAMBIE/THE EL PASO TIMES ‘ANGER HAS NO PLACE’: Clint ISD, uncle honor memory of 15-year-old student. Page 2S Volume 139 | Issue 219 ‘IT JUST WENT CHAOTIC’: El Paso native threw bottles to distract gunman. Page 4S Home delivery pricing inside Subscribe 877-301-0021 QEAJAB-02401z ‘GUARDIAN ANGEL’: Customs and Border Protection port director helped saved lives. Page 4S ©2019 $2.50 2S ❚ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 ❚ EL PASO TIMES ELPASOTIMES.COM ❚ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019 ❚ 3S Editorial ‘Anger has no place in honoring his memory’ Continued from Page 1S for the first time — and won. Fort Bliss, a key U.S. Army base, Horizon High draws service members from around the world. They make us an interna- mourns student tional city many times over. When these patriots retire, many are pur- Javier Rodriguez, 15 poseful in making El Paso their home. When Pope Francis visited the Molly Smith Americas, he chose Juárez to conclude El Paso Times his trip. From there, he could reach out USA TODAY NETWORK – TEXAS to the world on both sides of the border. In El Paso, we embrace our relation- Javier Amir Rodriguez was many ship with Juárez. We are not separated things to his classmates at Horizon High by a border fence. In El Paso, the border School: a best friend, a happy person, is an opportunity. Commerce helps ev- someone who was always there for others eryone share in the American dream. in need. We all want the same thing — we A teacher remembered him as a stu- want our country to prosper. That’s not dent who lit up the room and often en- different from your goal for America. tered class dribbling a soc- For many of us, our parents were cer ball. born in Mexico. We are proud of that It was his drive and Horizon High School holds a vigil for and we are also proud Americans. competitiveness on the Javier Rodriguez on Monday at the high America is our country. We are field and passion for soccer school football field. His death will home. that caught the attention hopefully “serve as yet another lesson Not everyone who visits El Paso has of his soccer coaches, but it to a country with a lost identity,” his understood this. Rodriguez was his role as the “ulti- coach Hugo Gines said. During a visit to El Paso in April 2017, mate teammate” putting then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Ses- other players first that stayed with them. sions called El Paso “ground zero.” He On Saturday, the 15-year-old was dle school teacher Adrian Barrios. He de- said our city was “the front lines … gunned down while waiting in line at the scribed his former student as someone where we take our stand” against car- bank with his uncle in one of the deadliest with a positive energy felt by those tels and human traffickers. mass shootings in U.S. history. Javier, around him. Mr. President, in your February State who attended Horizon as a freshman last His friend Alexis Acosta said Javier of the Union address, you claimed that year, is the youngest victim of the 22 would tell his classmates, friends and El Paso was “one of our nation’s most killed at an El Paso Walmart. family “to live on and do the things we dangerous cities” before a border wall Horizon High School students, teach- love to do. Don’t let the pain take over was built. ers, staff and parents joined community you.” Mr. President, that is not El Paso. members Monday evening to remember Those words, Acosta said, are what Ja- Our city and Juárez were always him and to tell the nation they would not vier told him after he lost a loved one. linked. Today, we are intertwined more let the tragedy define them. than ever. The evil that visited us tar- His death will hopefully “serve as yet Beto O’Rourke attends vigil geted people from El Paso and Juárez another lesson to a country with a lost alike. In our sorrow, we are more alike identity,” his coach Hugo Gines said. Sat- Javier and his uncle were in line at the than ever. urday’s shooting, Gines said, “has shown bank when a gunman entered the Wal- Some in our community doubt we the worst and the best part of people. In mart near Cielo Vista Mall. will be able to change your view of our your memory Javier, our community has His uncle, who was also shot, re- border community. But it is important shown great resilience despite the hurt.” mained hospitalized as of Monday night, to us that we explain all that is good according to Democratic presidential about El Paso. ‘We are people of hope, candidate Beto O’Rourke, who made a In El Paso, when a baby in a onesie is we are people of light’ surprise appearance at the vigil. O’Rourke covered in blood in an attack on a met with Javier’s uncle and other survi- neighborhood store, a man scoops her Clint Independent School District Su- vors. up and races for the exits. perintendent Juan Martinez did not shy “To see the love that he had for Javier In El Paso, when our neighbors are away from addressing the hatred that led and the impact Javier had made on his hurt, people and businesses donate to Javier’s death. life, and the sorrow that he felt at his loss, more than $1 million in just two days to “Apparently we were the targets be- was something that everyone in that hos- help them. cause of the color of our skin. I am sorry: pital room instantly felt,” O’Rourke said. Our people are scared. So many of us Javier did not chose the color of his skin.