On April 28, from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m., Frank will discuss the development of Lying Close on Facebook live. www.facebook.com/frankweberauthor *Win a chance to be a True Crime Star! During the 4 weeks of presentations, people who make comments during the presentation will have their name put into a drawing with the winner receiving 1 of 3 choices. I will either use your name as a character, have you make a brief appearance, or use your business name somewhere in the book. (You can gift this award to a friend if you wish.) We will have the drawing this Tuesday, April 28 at the end of the presentation. Attend here! Lying Close: A hunting accident, a rural home break in, and the disappearance of a teen, all occur in a 30 mile stretch of rural Minnesota. Jon Frederick realizes they are all symptoms of a larger problem. Lying Close also involves a relationship between a white rural Christian, and a Somali Muslim woman in St. Cloud. It’s hard to believe in 2020 that there are still young people in the United States who can’t tell their parents who they’re dating because of hate. Lying Close is a thrilling mystery, with a forbidden love affair. Poverty & Race, Heroes & their counterparts On March 14, 19-year-old Jose L. Gomez, 19, stabbed the three people at the Midland, Texas Sam's Club before being taken down by a store employee. The Texas man tried to kill an Asian American family of three because he "thought the family was Chinese, and infecting people with the coronavirus." Gomez was then taken into custody by off-duty officer, Bernie Ramirez, and was charged with three counts of attempted capital murder. Ramirez initially approached Gomez and family with the intention of breaking up what he thought was a fight over scarce goods. Ramirez said "credit is due" to Zach Owen, a store employee who stopped Gomez by putting him in a chokehold. Zach suffered stab wounds to the hand in the process. "He went into a knife fight bare-handed," Ramirez said. "He took control of the individual, and he disarmed him. If Zach had not been there, things could’ve gone really badly.” Zach Owen saved the lives of 3 strangers, simply because it was the right thing to do. Zach is an American hero! On March 11, a woman in New York punched another woman, telling her, “Where’s your mask, you Asian bitch?” Governor Andrew Cuomo responded:
Great response Andrew! The Coronavirus (or what President Trump called the “Chinese virus”) actually did start in Wuhan, China. But please keep in mind that Asian people outside of the live butchering meat markets in Wuhan, China are no more responsible for the virus than white Minnesotans are responsible for slavery. People make bad choices. If you need to categorize, then remember, not everyone in their category is responsible. Scientists have been warning that a deadly virus was going to come out of this environment for decades. Do you remember the “German measles,” or the pandemic of the “Spanish flu?” The German measles didn’t originate in Germany and the Spanish flu didn’t originate in Spain. It’s interesting that Small Pox, which killed so many Natives, was given such a neutral name. In 1918 and 1919 the so-called “Spanish flu” killed 50 million people worldwide. Many Americans, including Senator Chuck Grassley, seem to believe—as the Spanish flu name implies—that this outbreak began in Spain. Grassley tweeted, “I don’t understand why China gets upset because we refer to the virus that originated there the “Chinese virus” Spain never got upset when we referred to the Spanish flu in 1918 & 1919.” That led me to research the diseases. It was believed keeping your windows open would curb the Spanish flu. There is no truth to it, but a variety of misguided theories emerge with every major illness. There was an old classic movie where a sick woman was saved by opening the window. If anybody remembers the name of it, please forward it to me. The first recorded case of the “Spanish flu” was in Kansas. As the flu spread through the U.S. and European countries during World War I, fighting nations actively censored coverage of the outbreaks. Spain, which was neutral, stood out because it was one of the only nations that accurately reported the number of people afflicted by the outbreak, leading to the perception that the flu was concentrated there. Meanwhile in Spain, it was called the “French flu.” Everybody wants to blame somebody-- An influx of Italians to the U.S. were blamed for polio, even though there was no evidence to support it. Why was Rubella called the “German measles?” Because Germany has produced great scientists basically. German scientists were the first to identify that Rubella wasn’t a form of measles, but instead a separate disease. With anti-German sentiment being popular at the time, the disease was tagged the “German measles.” Here’s an example: In 1918, 1 out of every 3 Americans was born outside of the United States. Perhaps the most horrendous anti-German act was the lynching in April 1918 of 29-year-old Robert Paul Prager, a German-born bakery employee, who was accused of making "disloyal utterances." Immigrants from Germany and Ireland in particular were urging America to stay out of World War I. Robert Prager had been dismissed from the local union because of his German heritage and opposition to the war. He wrote a letter to the Maryville miners, complaining that he had been treated unfairly by Local 1802 President James Fornero. "I have been a union man all times and never once a scab [strikebreaker]." He denied accusations that he was a German sympathizer. He wrote, "I am heart and soul for the good old USA. I am of German birth, of which accident I cannot help." On the afternoon of April 4, he posted copies of his letter near the Maryville mine and nearby saloons. Robert Prager was a patriot who flew the American flag. After people read his posting a mob took him from his home, wrapped him tight in an American flag and marched him through the streets. The police took him into custody to protect him. The mob marched to the jail. The officers hid Robert in the sewer and told the mob he left. They allowed a couple members of the mob to have a look in the Collinsville, Illinois jail. They found Robert, dragged him outside of town, and hanged him. Before the lynching, he was allowed to write a last note to his parents in Dresden, Germany: Dear Parents: I must on this, the 4th day of April, 1918, die. Please pray for me, my dear parents. In the trial that followed, the defendants wore red, white, and blue ribbons, while a band in the courthouse played patriotic songs. It took the jury 25 minutes to return a not-guilty verdict. The German government lodged a protest and offered to pay Prager's funeral expenses. Poverty & Race Sociologist James Coleman completed an extensive study of American schools, and realized that the greatest impact on performance in schools is not race, sex, or religion. The best predictor of success in school is income. The poor do worse, in every school. Ironically, this can appear as race in graphs and data, because certain races haven’t had the same opportunities and therefore are greater represented among the poor. After viewing the above graph, take a look at the graphs on test performance in schools below. It is exactly the same. Teen pregnancy is at its lowest level for every race in the U.S. This is an important statistic, since it is basically a ticket into poverty. Only ½ of teen mothers earn a high school diploma by age 22, compared to 90% of women without a teen birth. Teenage mothers are more likely to live in poverty and depend on public assistance. Children born to teen parents are more likely to have lower school achievement, enter the child welfare and correctional systems, drop out of high school and become teen parents themselves, compared to children born to older parents. 2017 Teen Birth Rates American Indian (32 per 1000) Hispanic (29 per 1,000) *Hispanic teens of Mexican origin had birth rates similar to those for teens of Puerto Rican origin (32 and 31 per 1,000, respectively), and both were higher than the rate for Cuban teens (15 per 1,000) African American (28 per 1,000) American Indian and Alaska Native (22 per 1,000) White (13 per 1,000) Asian or Pacific Islander (7 per 1,000) What’s ironic about this data is about 1 in 4 teens living in poverty become pregnant, regardless of race. So the pregnancy rates are basically reflective of who is living in poverty. Fortunately, teen pregnancy rates are going down for all races. My conclusion is that we need to do more to help people living in poverty and we need to be less judgmental of others. In 2019, the U.S. had a historic number of billionaires, but still a large homeless population. In Minnesota alone, there were 6,000 homeless children. People chill out. Life is a bumpy road. We need solutions, not blame. Be kind… Thanks for listening, Frank
1 Comment
|
AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
April 2024
Categories |