The white doves of Yuma, Part two
Yuma, Arizona - Yuesday, February 12, 2013
by: Michael Townsend
In this somnolent desert city, there is no peace. The white doves have abandoned Yuma, AZ. The few that remained were slaughtered Tuesday Feb. 5th, 2013 by fear and loathing on a scale I never thought possible.Three schools in Yuma were placed on lockdown Tuesday morning after police were called to investigate a report of a student possibly carrying a gun.The police arrived at Rancho Viejo Elementary School at approximately 9:55 a.m. That school, along with nearby Salida Del Sol Elementary School and WACOG Preschool, were placed on lockdown. No gun was found but dozens of elementary school children were treated like criminals and prisoners of war, marched out of school, hands on their heads, fingers interlocked. It brought to mind two other photographs: German soldiers marching women and children off to be slaughtered in concentration camps and Israeli soldiers manhandling a Palestinian child.
As I search for meaning in the madness these pictures represent, I am demoralize but not confused. Americans are at war with themselves. Trust is a concept long forgotten, innocence discarded on the trash heap of history. It has been less than two months since a mad man shot and killed innocent elementary school children and teachers in Freetown, Conn. Now the police of Yuma have treated children here with a disregard for basic human dignity exceeded only by Nazis and Israelis. Can it get any worse here?
I think it can. Will I get out in time? That remains uncertain.