IN THE NEWS!
I am four hundred miles away from home and even from this distance the news is not good.
A 23 year old rookie cop, two days ago, was shot in the head. There was no reason for it, not that there ever could be. It was routine. No weapons had been pulled. No arrests were made. And then, as he returned to his car, back turned, he was shot in the head. Lights out without ever seeing his shooters face.
Two days before hand: Kodak announced they were cutting 4500 jobs. Of course we're prepared for these layoffs like we are prepared for snow in Rochester, New York. It is just a matter of time and it'll be coming. 4500 people without work. This is a city that was once home to Kodak, Xerox, Bausch and Lamb. The second largest employer in the city of Rochester, today, is a grocery store. Thank god for minimum wage and the 40 hour work week. We need to get on the arch and see if we can't all scrape by together.
In other news a 36 year old man, just today, walked into his girlfriends house, shot her six times, and then shot himself. I feel it in my bones, the way this all just accumulates like snow. And the sad thing is that violent crime tends to drop off in the winter months. What are we in for this summer?
In the meantime the new Governor of New York is passing a, "you can't make this shit up," obesity tax. He has Pop, that's right we call it pop, at the top of the list. Taxing "fat" people, poor people, middle class people, who aren't drinking six dollar bottles of Ethos water or four dollar non-fat strawberry infused caramel covered lattes. It seems like one more bullet aimed right for the heart of a city that bottles both Pepsi and Coke. If it keeps on like this we'll be lucky to have grocery stores left.
Some days, when I think of home, I think of a ship sinking so slowly that no one even recognizes we're sinking. That fucker will be at the bottom before anyone notices. That fucker will take us all down before anyone calls mayday, or outfits us in life vests, or thinks to throw us a mother fucking life line.
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As you can see, our correspondent from Rochester is not impressed with the national response to the economic despair that is being experienced by all those people who aren't in Dick Cheney's tax bracket.
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 
Ahhh yes, home sweet home… breaks my heart.
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As a long-time resident of Rochester, I can add some details about the shooting. A 14-year-old has been arrested, and yes, it supposedly had to do with drug activity in the area. It’s all very, very sad. — Georgia
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My reaction to the obesity tax is, frankly, wtf? I say that as someone who doesn’t drink Starbucks lattes and fancy-ccinos, which at 430 calories a pop, is far more than a 140 calorie coke. What Patterson forgets is that diet sodas are associated just as much with obesity. While obesity is a health problem, he does nothing to mitigate the hate against fat people.
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