June 22 - I got another email today from
a family member of a murder victim. Those are such a cold
words, "murder victim". What is a murder victim? Maybe we
should be asking 'who' instead. Who is Oralen Buckner? One
of us: a neighbor, a friend to many, an uncle to some.
Jaimee McClure sent me this: "We would like to do a candle
lighting and balloon release for Oralen Buckner. He was
gunned down on June 13, 2009. A lot of people witnessed
the murder but of course no one knows anything. He was a
true humanitarian. All these murders need to stop!!! Oralen
would not hurt a fly he fell asleep on the metro and missed
his stop, the bus driver woke him up and told him this was
the last stop of the night, so Oralen got off and called
his brother, he was killed before the brother came and got
him. Something needs to be done, the streets are getting
real crazy. It happened in the Fay Apartments. We just want
justice and closure so we can forgive the one that pulled
the trigger. Please help us."
Jaimee went on to tell me Mr. Buckner served with honors
in the Army, from 1973 to 1979. He had everyone call him
Uncle Oralen. He was loved by everyone who knew him. He
was buried on Friday, the 19th. And, like Jaimee says, everyone
who loved him is a victim, too.
It's been a few years since I worked on this site.
It's time to start putting it to use again. If you
or your organization are working to stop the violence in
our community, email me and we can give you some web presence,
a website or a link. I'm happy to help.
webmaster@stop-the-violence.org
