Happy Hanukkah, Al Tuner

MoonHowler

Elena has obligations and so I thought I would be a good Christian and do her Hanukkah post for her since tonight is the first night.  Then I remembered.  This was going to be tough since I know very little about this Jewish festival of lights.  Then I started thinking about other friends and one person stuck in my mind–A man named Al Tuner.  Danny.

I first  knew Danny online, probably about 14 years ago. We all became real  friends eventually since we lived in Northern Virginia.   He was a decent sort, once you got past his gruffness.   Danny loved trains.  I don’t mean sorta liked trains, Danny LOVED trains and he went by the moniker Al Tuner.  Some of you might have known him.  Al Tuner was a play on words for one of his favorite places, Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA.  Al worked for Amtrak at the time and he would stop in Altoona as often as he could get by with.

I lost track of Danny and several years ago I made the sad discovery  he was deceased.  He had had  some fatal illness.  I think  of Danny every Hanukkah however, and always have, ever since I cyberly spent that first Hanukkah with him online.  It seems that Danny had a train menorah.  He told me all about it. Unlike the one I am posting, his was lots of different colors. He described it in detail.  It was one of his prized possessions.  Danny must have been lonely.  He talked for hours about his train menorah and his dad, who had been dead for a while.  It was a very reflective night for my friend.  By the end of that conversation, I felt like I knew more  train menorahs than I ever thought possible.

I also knew more about Hanukka also, seen through the eyes of another.  I can’t tell you about the religious significance but I came away knowing a lot more about families and about a son’s relationship with his father and how a train menorah was simply the manifestation of something much deeper.  I hope Danny had his train menorah buried with him.

If there is anything to the notion that the dead live on in our souls, then Al Tuner certainly got in mine that night.  I thank him for sharing his feelings and for telling me what was important to him.  I wish him many more train rides around Horseshoe Curve.  Danny lives on in our hearts and minds and every time I hear a train, I think of Danny. 

 

Danny, like the song says, long may you run.

Danny’s website of short articles about trains, he calls muses.

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/musemenu.shtml

 

Flight 93 Memorial not fully funded

MoonHowler

From The Daily Beast,:

It’s the only one of the three major 9/11 memorials that’s still not fully funded, and many are wondering why. The final resting place of the 40 people on United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., will have a low marble wall carved with the names of the passengers and crew. The memorial will be officially dedicated Saturday in time for the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks, and be open to the public the next day. But the funding is still $10 million short of the $62 million needed, and Congress has allocated only about $14 million. The site still looks like it did 10 years ago on the morning of Sept. 11—a rolling meadow of grass and wildflowers.

$10 million short?  Holy cow.  Those people on that plane saved Congress’s bacon that day.  The object was the Capitol.  Had those brave souls not brought that plane down, every member of Congress present that day, not just at the Capitol but also in the surrounding area, could have very well become vaporized.  It is time to find the funds.  Perhaps they could give up some of their salary to help with funding.  Perhaps they could put up pay pal on all congressional sites.  This situation is inexcusable.  I feel confident the American people would be more than willing to donate towards a memorial at Shanksville, Pennsylvania to honor the dead. 

Hazleton, PA Immigration Law Struck Down

MoonHowler

A Hazleton, PA law that targeted illegal immigrants was struck down by a federal appeals court today.  The law wass actually passed in 2006 but has been held up in the courts.  The Hazleton, PA law also severed as a model for various laws, ordinances and resolutions around the country.

The Hazleton Law allowed for pulling the business licenses of those who hired illegal aliends.  Additionally, landlords could be fined if they rented to people out of status.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that the law infringed on the federal government’s exclusive power to regulate immigration.  Once again the supremacy clause is the underlying cause for state and local laws to be voided. 

According to the NY Times:

The appeals court in Pennsylvania found that Hazleton had clearly overstepped its bounds.

“It is of course not our job to sit in judgment of whether state and local frustration about federal immigration policy is warranted,” the judges wrote. “We are, however, required to intervene when states and localities directly undermine the federal objectives embodied in statutes enacted by Congress.”

Hazleton “has attempted to usurp authority the Constitution has placed beyond the vicissitudes of local governments,” the panel of three judges concluded unanimously.

Another appeal is planned by the city.

A Step Towards Justice for Luis Ramirez

Elena

Nothing will bring Luis Ramirez back to his family, but the wheels of justice have finally begun to turn in the correct direction. I was truly shocked to hear of charges levied against the very people who are suppose to uphold the law.   As reported by CNN:

Washington (CNN) — Five people, including three police officers, have been indicted on charges related to the beating death of a Latino man in rural Pennsylvania in July 2008, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Two indictments charge the five with federal hate crimes, obstruction of justice and conspiracy in what authorities are calling a racially motivated attack.

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