Last fall and winter as I planned the topics for my blog for 2025, all I came up with to write about on Monday, September 15 was James Fenimore Cooper’s 236th birthday.
Last year, I was trying to blog about my journey as a writer, a history buff, and a reader. I planned to continue my routine of blogging every Monday. Even at that pace, I came up sorely lacking for a topic for today’s blog post.
Nevertheless, I left James Fenimore Cooper’s birthday on my editorial calendar for today.
Little did I know what 2025 held for all of us. Little did I know what last week held for us.
James Fennimore Cooper is one of most-celebrated Early American writers, but I will not blog about him today. His 236th birthday holds no interest for me.
We find ourselves in a volatile time not just in the United States but around the world.
There is inflamed political speech in the United States. It might not be worse than ever before, but it is being fueled like never before due to social media and around-the-clock television. (Yes, young people, the TV networks used to sign off at midnight or 1 a.m. The national anthem was played, and then a “test pattern” filled the screen until morning. I’m not making that up!)
Today I will follow up on a couple of things I included in my blog on Friday.
The murder of Iryna Zarutska
In my blog post on Friday, September 12, I shared a long list of things I am sick of. One of them was,” I’m sick of politicians like J.D. Vance blaming North Carolina Governor Josh Stein for the August 23 murder of Iryna Zarutska by Decarlos Brown, Jr. on a light rail train in Charlotte after Gov. Stein said we needed more law enforcement officers.”
If you somehow missed hearing about this case, Iryna Zarutska was a 23-year-old Ukrainian who fled the war there and settled in Charlotte. She got off work that night, boarded the Blue Line light rail in Southend, just south of uptown Charlotte, took an aisle seat, got out her cell phone, and had her earbuds in.
Ms. Zarutska had bought a car, but she couldn’t get an appointment with the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles to get her driver’s license until October. So she was taking the light rail to and from her job at a pizza parlor.
Mr. Brown was in the window seat on the row directly behind her, but no one was sitting in the aisle seat next to him.
Less than five minutes later, Mr. Brown unfolded a pocket knife, jumped up, and stabbed Ms. Zarutska in the neck without hesitation or warning.
Three weeks after Ms. Zarutska’s cold-blooded unprovoked murder, a reporter drew it to Trump’s attention. It immediately became a flashpoint and battle cry for the Trump Administration.
What I didn’t go on and say in Friday’s blog post was that Decarlos Brown, Jr. is suffering from Schizophrenia and his mother has tried to get him the treatment he needs. Mr. Brown is 34 years old. His mother cannot force him into treatment, and she should not be held responsible for his actions. That part of the story is not getting the attention it needs because, as a country, we don’t want to talk about mental illness – much less do anything about it.
It is the lack of a mental health system in the United States that meant that Decarlos Brown, Jr. was on the train that night and not in a treatment facility. He was convinced that Iryna Zarutska was “reading his mind,” according to his sister. He told police that he was controlled by things in his body. That is not Gov. Stein’s fault, so let’s just stop blaming Democratic governors and mayors for all our societal failures.
There was a case of Schizophrenia in my extended family. This family member’s father did everything humanly possible under the law to get his adult child help. The system prevented this adult from being kept in a mental health facility long enough for them to get the treatment that was needed.
If an adult is not seen as a threat to themselves or to someone else, they cannot be held in a mental health facility against their will. The irony is that people who need mental health care often do not know they need help.
The irony is that once a person with some mental health issues is treated and is on a medication that helps control their symptoms, they often conclude that they are cured or that nothing was wrong with them to begin with and they stop taking their medications.
How many times do we have to hear that? How many times do we have to see it with our own eyes?
I don’t know what the answer is but if there had been a law enforcement officer sitting in front of or near Ms. Zarutska, they probably could not have prevented her murder. It happened just that fast, and it happened from behind without warning. Just because Mr. Brown was restless and sometimes talking to himself, that’s not against the law.
President Trump has called for Mr. Brown to receive the death penalty. Since when is having Schizophrenia a capital offense?
Until our country finds the courage, will, compassion, and wisdom to address mental illness, this will not be the last tragic murder. We find the money to develop weapons to defend ourselves against other countries, but we don’t find the money or the will to truly care for our fellow Americans who are ill due to no fault of their own.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk
Another item on my list on Friday was, “I’m sick of Trump’s followers claiming that every Democrat is rejoicing in Wednesday’s assassination of Charlie Kirk and that they “should all burn in hell forever.” Some of the loudest conservative talking heads were quick on Wednesday afternoon to proclaim that “we are now at war.”
What I did not go on and say on Friday was that Charlie Kirk had extreme political views, but he had a right to those views and he had the right of free speech to voice his views – just like I have the right to write my views in my blog.
Political violence has no place in the United States, but it certainly is a part of our history. I don’t know that one political party has a monopoly on political assassinations and attempted assassinations. People are quick to point fingers and place blame.
Instead of speaking on television on Wednesday night to call for a lowering of political hate speech, Trump spoke of tracking down anyone and everyone who had anything to do with the assassination. He immediately blamed the “far Left” and the news media for spouting hateful rhetoric that caused this assassination.
The person or people involved in Charlie Kirk’s assassination do need to be brought to justice, but we need a U.S. President who has the wisdom and self-awareness to recognize that he is partly to blame for the vicious political rhetoric in our country today.
We should be able to voice our opinions on politics, religion, and anything else without fear of being murdered. A sign of an advanced society is the free exchange of ideas. I thought I was living in such a society, but maybe I have been naïve the first 72 years of my life.
I think we’re at a turning point, and the arrow is not pointing in a good direction.
Hurricane Helene Update
As of Friday, 38 roads in North Carolina were still closed due to Hurricane Helene. That count included five US highways, two state highways, and 31 state roads.
As I reported two weeks ago, the rebuilding of five miles of I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge in North Carolina at the Tennessee line is expected to be completed by the end of 2028 at a cost of $1.3 billion. One lane in each direction at 35 miles-per-hour continues since the partial reopening.
As fall approaches, visitors are encouraged to plan trips to the mountains in western North Carolina. Just be aware that portions of the Blue Ridge Parkway and some other roads remain closed. Check routes online when planning your trip.
Janet
Janet's Writing Blog 