Clarence Plane Crash
By now, I’m sure everyone has heard about the plane crash that happened in Clarence, NY. (If you haven’t, what rock have you crawled under?)
Here in Buffalo, it’s pretty much dominated everything: the newspaper, newscasts, talk radio, and even sports. At the Sabres game on Friday night, they had a moment of silence. There are prayer services, counseling, everyone is offering consolation, and sure, it is a big deal. It isn’t every day a plan drops out of the sky and 50 people die.
I was watching TV when I found out about it. I kept flipping between channels 2, 4, and 7. It was interesting how at first, all they could show was a map of the neighborhood. Then pictures started coming in from people with cell phones, Then came the cellphone videos. Then, after about an hour or so, they finally had film crews out there. CNN picked up Channel 2′s news fees, which ironically had the worst picture quality (“powered by Skype”).
Personally, I did not know anyone on the plane. I heard that a 9/11 widow was on it, a human rights activist, and a couple of members of Chuck Mangione’s band were also victims of the crash.
Lately, though, I’ve been of the mind, “Enough already!” Certainly, fifty people were tragically killed, and it’s a huge news story, especially since there hasn’t been any fatalities due to commercial plane crashes in the US for over 2 years. We need to find out what happened, and how to prevent it in the future. And there are many people who lost family members, friends, and acquaintances.
The thing is, over the last decade, Buffalo has averaged over 55 homicides per year. Is that not equally tragic?
Maybe, I’m just getting burned out from hearing the same story over and over again.
