I WAS JUST WANDERING THE NET WHEN…..!

I WAS JUST WANDERING THE NET WHEN…..!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

I missed it, I scan headlines from more than 30 newspapers every day, and somehow I missed one of my pet peeves, a shooting death…..this incident took place in northern California last Thursday, February 20, 2014. And the worst part, at least for me, was the fact that I found the article in the Russian Times. Alturas, California was the site of the latest mass shooting in the United States. I use the term mass shooting because most state, and all federal authorities do not use the term mass shootings until at least 5 people have died.

I guess the shooting attack didn’t merit a front page story in most of American newspapers because…..well, you pick-um; the victims were Native Americans, or the victims were Native Americans, or the death of an Indian (in this case four) wasn’t noteworthy enough to rate even a wire service story.

It was an afternoon shooting (about 3:30 P.M.) and the perpetrator was a 44-year-old, Cherie Lash, also known as Cherie Rhoades who lived in Cedarville, California. According to police, Lash/Rhoades was attending a tribal eviction meeting at the Cedarville Rancheria tribal office Thursday when the women stood and opened fire, killing four and wounding two others. The woman was armed with a hand gun and a butcher knife, and was apprehended as she ran from the building.

The Cedarville Rancheria is a small Federally Recognized Tribe comprised of 35 members.  It is headquartered in Alturas, California and is governed by a democratically elected tribal council who serve three-year terms, and the alleged February 20 shooter, Lash/Rhoades, was the tribal chairperson during 2012.

There is something here in this shooting incident that initially isn’t understood, the victims of the Lash/Rhoades shootings were the shooters brother, 50 year old, Rurik Davis; her niece, 19 year old, Angel Penn; and her nephew 30-year old Glenn Calonicco. The fourth person killed was 47-year old Sheila Lynn Russo, a tribal administrator who managed evictions.

Should a shooting spree like this surprise, or even give pause for people to take stock in what is important, and maybe how we possibly should alter our priority thinking? Alturas, California is small, like 2,827 small, and gun ownership isn’t guaranteed, a valid I.D. proof of citizenship, and a clear record (you can’t be a criminal).

You can’t walk down the streets of Alturas packing a side arm, with an itchy trigger-finger, and you can’t carry a rifle slung over your shoulder…..kind of like Robin Hood did with his bow and arrow. Northern California, where Alturas and Cedarville are located….. is on the border of Oregon and Nevada. People works, get married, have children, make a family, and they fish, hunt and play sports…..but they don’t usually shoot people. The population of this high plains area are a hardy lot of native Americans and some rugged pioneer types who are quick with a joke, and usually quicker to taking care of their own troubles…..that is until a shooting occurs for little or no reason…..an eviction notice is not a reason to gun four people down in cold blood, that’s when law enforcement comes into their lives, and much like the rest of the country, the laws of the land govern the outcome of a situation.

CHERIE LASH/RHOADES

To say the least, Cherie Lash/Rhoades is a robust women, she appears to be a good 250 pound person, and nobody to take lightly in a physical altercation. And it’s graphically apparent that the women can handle a firearm. There’s a picture of this lady included with the story, and as they say…..”a picture is worth a thousand words.” This woman looks frustrated with life, with herself, and probably figures that she ought to be in a different place.

Practically everyone in this tiny high desert town in northeastern California’s Surprise Valley knew Cherie Lash/Rhodes. She was a leader of the small Paiute Tribe and according to a village business owner, Lash/Rhodes bullied her way through life…..but there was surprise when the woman had shot to death four people.

Surprise is a pretty strong word in this case, if Lash/Rhodes bullied people, and she apparently got away with it, when she was confronted by her own family who figured that the bullying was over, who’s to say that the killing spree wasn’t predictable? I’m not a shrink, have little experience with a bully (as an adult) but because her family members were putting Lash/Rhodes and her son out of their house, maybe the reaction was predictable.

According to the business owner, Lash/Rhodes was always ready for a good joke, but people didn’t want to get on her bad side. The women was always pushing, pushing to get her way…..no matter the circumstances, she was “right” all of the time, always loud, plowing straight ahead to gain her own end.

MY POINT IS SIMPLE

Why Cheri Lash/Rhodes decided to kill her brother (whom she got along with most of the time), a niece and nephew is anybody’s guess. The other fatality, a tribe administrator was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time, tragically.

I have a couple of points with regards to this blog, I’m wondering why, in the 21^st century, being one of the reputed leaders of the free world, do we put so little stock in mass murder. What Cheri Lash/Rhodes did was to take a loaded weapon to a meeting, and when she didn’t like what she was hearing, she pulled out her pistol and shot lethal holes in four people, and wounded two others.

There are approximately 20 U.S. kids a day that are hospitalized for gunshot wounds, that figures out to more than 7,000 kids a year being shot in the United States of America. Is that figure unacceptable, you better believe it. This is a disturbing figure, but read on there’s more of these statistics for your information, that’ll startle you.

Depending on which source a person uses, between 25,000 and 30,000 people die every year in the United States as a result of being shot accidently, or suicide…..or on purpose. We’re in a war here people, it’s just not declared, and not all are armed.

Defective tires have killed more than 200 people over the past 40 years, while defective guns or ammunition have claimed around 500 people over the same period. We can’t stop driving cars, and to drive those cars, we gotta have tires, so defective tire deaths will continue.

However…..my second point, can anybody tell me how many people would die from gunshots if there weren’t any firearms…..no of course not. We simply aren’t going to get rid of our pistols and rifles, there kind of a phallic symbol, you know, the mines bigger than yours thing.

So if we’re not getting rid of our weapons, we’d better come up with some solid ideas on how to keep guns out of hands of people like Cheri Lash/Rhodes. Oh sure the gun owner advocates come out of the wood-work with the “a well-regulated militia, or no free man shall be debarred the use of arms, or how about, to disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”  

Look we aren’t dependent on hunting our food, the Native American has been defeated, and we’re spending billions on security and law enforcement domestically, so we don’t need a militia, and nobody needs an A-K 47.

So why can’t we sit down around a round table, and get this thing settled…..get rid of the gun manufacturing and ammo makers lobbyists, and let’s have some quality one on one to get things done…..”can I get a witness?”

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!