Pittsburgh is a great city, with people who have left to go elsewhere never really leaving it behind.  Go to any city around the country and you will find a Steelers bar where former 'Burghers gather on Sundays to watch their beloved football team, because being one of us in the blood.  The rest of the country wrote this town off after the death of the steel industry, condemning us to the scrapbin like other Rust Belt cities, but the same work ethic and community that made Pittsburgh a major player in the world for decades is what has enabled it to rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes.  We're not perfect, as we still have some ugly racism ingrained in our city, but Pittsburghers will rally around one another like no other place I've ever seen, because we're the unwanted and the unheralded and all we have is one another.

There was an interfaith rally in the city tonight, in our Oakland neighborhood (which is right next to Squirrel Hill and the home of a number of our universities), in the aftermath of this tragedy.  The most striking moment was courtesy of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, who had already raised over $70,000 in one day to donate, when they volunteered to come to the synagogue and stand guard to protect the worshipers on Saturdays.  That is America at its finest, not the hate-filled, dog whistle ranting of the unqualified, uncouth, uncultured, barely literate jackwagon in the Oval Office.  People who should seemingly hate each other but who recognize that their differences are far less important or divisive than their similarities, which is as people of faith who worship the same God but in different ways, are standing united rather than letting the Divider-in-Chief tear at the fabric that holds this nation together.  

I'm hurt and sad and angry and I'm done just wishing things could change.  I have two daughters that are growing up in a world that devalues peace, love, and compromise, and I will no longer let them see me sit by idly while the world spirals out of control.  I've been passive for far too long but that time is over, as they deserve better, the Jewish community in Squirrel Hill deserves better, the migrants fleeing violence in Central America deserve better, and the poor and the widows and the orphans deserve better, so I have to be better.  I have no idea where to start, but when I cast my ballot on November 6, there is no way in hell that a Republican running for state or national office will get a vote from either me (or my wife, as we are of like mind in this).  It's not much, but every journey of 1,000 miles begins with but a single step.    

I'm not a Pittsburgher like The Captain, but I was born there, and spent the first eight months of my life in the Oakland neighborhood. My father was born in Pittsburgh in 1925 and lived there until the 1950s. This tragedy makes me sad for my ancestral home.

One thing I recall, and I apologize in advance for using a slur - my father once told me that in the old days, the 30s & 40s, he heard people refer to the Squirrel Hill neighborhood as "Kikes Peak". Has that nickname survived or is it in the dustbin of history? Anti-Semitism certainly isn't new, but it seems like the level of violence is new.

I really have had no words, just sadness.

but watching Sarah Huckabee Sanders cry crocodile tears at the press conference today, when her employer's words at least in part are what have driven this atmosphere in America has infuriated me.


if I have to find a positive? Trump's comment about armed guards (even if it was in response to a question), has my VERY pro-Trump (and very Jewish) Father, questioning. he simply cannot understand why anyone would think that a place of Worship requires armed guards, and is confused about "his guy" suggesting it.

when we saw him yesterday, he actually had flipped over from One America News (his preferred choice for the past few years) to Fox, as the coverage of Trump on OAN was starting to bother him.

so yeah. . hopefully he's finally losing some of his older Jewish supporters over this.

(and should mention. .his neighborhood - which in 2016 was an absolute SEA of "Trump" yard signs? Only counted 7 Ted Cruz signs -- and THREE Beto signs. . . so maybe there is some hope for Texas)

Super excited right now, as the screaming man-baby will be in Pittsburgh today to speak on the tragedy of this past weekend, even though our mayor and members of the Tree of Life community have specifically asked him not to come.

You just know he's going to turn this somehow to be about him. He's already upset that they said they didn't want him here, and he's angry that he's being blamed for stoking the fires with his incendiary rhetoric, so let's see how long it takes before he lashes out at "the media" for not treating him better and at others for not respecting him.

One more week, folks, and maybe we'll see that rumored Blue Wave become a Tidal Blue Wave that gets the Democrats both houses of Congress so maybe we can get around to impeaching Mayor McCheeto for gross incompetence and conduct unbecoming not the POTUS but any human being.

My second hope is that the moderate Republicans take a look at what their party has become and start pushing back instead of just going along with the more extreme factions within the party.

Democracy only works when there are multiple reasonable options, but the hard tack to the right by the Republicans and the copycat push farther to the left by the Democrats now in progress will only serve to disillusion moderates on both sides and leave us even more divided.

My favorite Republican blogger, Chris Ladd, quit the party in October 2016 and stopped using GOPlifer.com/ as his online home (the site is still there, and still has some interesting reading). He's now based at www.politicalorphans.com/ and is urging people to vote Democratic for the next few years in order to save the country and, he hopes, save the Republican Party from itself.