Posted on 10/20/2002 4:13:26 AM PDT by GRRRRR
Both the Washington Post and Channel 9 reported this story but called the Police to discuss it with them before they published. The police did not return the call, but made the statement, Maybe the public wants the WP to solve this crime and let us do other police work...
The comments made by some talking heads were to the effect that a legal sized sheet of paper had instructions to the police and asked the police not to make the tarot card public. I have not heard the German part officially either, BTW.
Im sorry, but I totally disagree with your opinion. I am an older person, and I also knew my grandparents very well. I can tell you that we had ABSOLUTELY no fear of terrorism from the middle east because we did not meddle in their affairs!
Perhaps you are a new immigrant to this country and you do not understand, or perhaps you have no knowlege of American day-to-day living, our life styles, etc. prior to the middle 1900's. It was well into the 20th century that we did not meddle in their affairs, and it was well into the 20th century before we experienced any arab terrorism, since they had no motives for harming us, nor for revenge of their family members dying in American bombing raids.
Not only did my ancestors in America have no fears of terrorism from arabs, but for the most part, life was, in general, pretty boring on our old homesteads.
I guess a lot may depend on where one's grandparents lived. My grandparents, who lived in Czechoslovakia under, in turn, the boot of the Nazis and the Russians, had a profound distrust of muslims. In that part of the world, folk music is very illustrative. There are many folk songs that reflect the cruelty of the muslims and the hardships imposed by the Ottoman Empire. If you look past the relatively recent history of America and consider the history of Europe, I think you'll find plenty of reasons for concern regarding muslim intentions. If you don't like European history, take a look at forced conversions in Sudan. All these large and small nations couldn't possibly have brought this upon themselves through meddling.
The 'I am God' statement may have been added as a caption for the image on the card, and is not a direct reference to the shooter himself.
By the way, if you're addressing a policeman in a servile manner in German, I think the way you would say "Dear Policeman" is "Herr Wachtmeister," or "lieber Herr Wachtmeister".
Somebody else posted on one of the threads that the National Enquirer is reporting that the sniper has left several messages for the police, at several shooting scenes.
I have not seen the ethnicity of the victim of the Sept. 14 shooting identified. Can somebody please post his name? I know it's been reported.
nonsense.
whitey's been 'meddling' there since at least the turn of the century,
but only in the last forty years have the goathumpers had the resources,
via their extorting us with the output of the very wells that whitey drilled,
to attempt the export of their bullshit 'religious' zealotry ...
From http://www.pbs.org/storewars/towns1.html, some information about Ashland VA, the home of Randolph-Macon College and Speed & Briscoe Truck Stop. It's trucker country; the area around Ashland is full of truck stops. At one time, Jarrells' up by Kings Dominion was the largest truck stop in the world and WRVA AM-1140 broadcast an all-night show from there. US1 also parallels I-95 in the north-south direction, a lot of the little mom-and-pop motels are foreign owned (possible safe houses?) and there are lots of back roads going all over the place. Lots of woods too. I would think someone who knew the area could pretty much go anywhere he wanted, especially with some local support where they could bed down until things blew over.
Early Ashland
Ashland has a rich history that gives it a sense of place unlike any other. Originally known as "Slash Cottage" for its wetlands (slash is an antiquated term for swamp), Ashland was a 19th century mineral springs resort and racecourse. Developed by the Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad Company in the mid-1800s as a summer retreat, the town became the site of a Confederate cavalry training camp at the beginning of the Civil War. Later in the war, Ashland overflowed with refugees fleeing the fighting in Northern Virginia. Close to bankruptcy by the war's end, the town and the resort were saved when Randolph-Macon College decided to relocate the school from Boydton, Virginia to Ashland to attract potential students with its accessibility by train. By the turn of the century, the town was so successful that an electric streetcar line was built from Richmond to Ashland, which, along with the RF&P's Accomodation Train, helped the town develop further as a classic "streetcar suburb."
Ashland's downtown area is centered around the railroad track, where a turn-of-the-century business district still bustles. Most of the coveted Victorian residences along the railroad were built as summer homes for people from Richmond, located15 miles south. Today, the downtown is considered a national historic district.
Ashland Today
As Ashland changes with the times, it also offers a cross-section of suburban America. In the 2000 presidential election, Ashlanders divided their votes between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. The town is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, despite the fact that surrounding areas are decidedly Republican. Since 1980, the population has increased by 40 percent to 7,200 in 2000. The ethnic diversity of Ashland is on the rise. In the past decade, nearly 500 African Americans have been annexed into town. Ashland is also a place that varies socioeconomically, as evidenced by the presence of housing of all income levels, including historical homes, bungalows, mobile homes and multi-family developments.
Ashland's proximity to Interstate 95 has increased both traffic and population, and the downtown district no longer is the town's main source of goods and services. Instead, most Ashlanders have turned to shopping centers and malls on the outskirts of town. Townspeople have fought to keep Ashland a habitable and accessible place in the midst of inevitable development. A little less than half of Ashland's 4.02 square miles is developed, primarily in single family residences, and over 12 per cent of the land is devoted to community and non-profit institutions, such as schools, churches, and the college - an unusually large amount of tax-exempt land for a small town. Ashland is pedestrian-oriented, a place where people can easily travel by foot and by bicycle.
Changing with the Times
Ashland continues to struggle to adapt to the changes that development brings. When a commercial area between Route One and the Interstate developed, it was referred to as the "messy mile," an eyesore that didn't mesh with the quaint, historic town. To integrate the area more into the town, curbs and a gutter, as well as trees and landscaping were added, transforming just another turn-off on the Interstate to part of the town. The Ashland town council has always been known to fight to preserve the town's character. When the federal government wanted to move the post office to a new building to the edge of town, residents protested loudly that they like their post office in the historic downtown area, where downtown businesses, older people and college students can easily walk to it. The postal service relented, and Ashland's post office remains downtown today. The town council also got Amtrak to renew passenger service directly from Ashland. It is the only town in American where you can board the train on Main Street and travel all the way up the East Coast. "Without ignoring what was going on in the world and nation around her...Ashland's virtue has been in refusing to become impersonal," writes town historian Rosie Shalf. But facing considerable growth pressure from Richmond as a result of the approximately 100,000 people a day that pass by on the highway, what remains to be seen is whether Ashland will be able to fight sprawl in the future and retain the intimacy and character of a small town.
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