THINKING ABOUT BUFFALO!

By Edwin Cooney

Saturday, May 14th's outrageously brutal attack on the Tops Supermarket in East Buffalo, New York brings forth a lot of memories and associations that are very personal.

Buffalo was founded in 1832. Its first mayor was 45-year-old Ebenezer Johnson, a Jacksonian Democrat, whose brother Elisha served as an early mayor of Rochester, New York. Situated at the western end of the newly completed Erie Canal, its location and commerce were vital to the nation's early 19th Century ever-growing prosperity.

I became aware of Buffalo as a child at school in nearby Batavia. Every spring someone, whether it was the Lions Club or members of Temple Beth Zion, would sponsor a trip to the Buffalo Zoo for all students from kindergarten through third grade. As a little boy who was then called Eddie, I enthusiastically identified with Eddie the Monkey, and I especially thrilled to the lions' roars throughout the echoey Lion’s House. Then, there was the cotton candy, peanuts and crackerjacks, along with the balloons. The best  part of it all was the anticipation. I remember one night prior to our annual visit that a boy named Jackie, in anticipation of going to the Buffalo Zoo proclaimed: “Tomorrow, we go to the Buffalo Zoo and see the lions and the bears" and from just beyond the door of our dormitory came a voice saying something like: “You’ll see a bear tonight, Jackie, if you don't be quiet!"

Buffalo was about radio to me. There was polka radio, Black radio, and “establishment” radio. WBEN was the CBS affiliate and, ultimately, there was WKBW which, in August of 1958, became what they called "Super Sonic Radio” and remained Buffalo's top rock station for the next 20 plus years.

Buffalo seemed to have greater pride in its ethnicity than any other city. People from Buffalo were more Polish, Jewish, Italian, or Black, it seemed,  than the ethnics of other communities.

A little lady who brought me into her life and family was born on Potomac Avenue in Buffalo on January 1st, 1910, living and loving for 100 years and 10 months thereafter.

What's especially sad and even revealing about the terror in Buffalo last Saturday is my own reaction — or, to put it another way — my usual mild attention to or even non-reaction to shootings in other cities. It demonstrates how parochial I can be without realizing it. All that is within me cries out as I write these words: it happened in Buffalo, New York, and it's got to stop, stop, stop!

The question is how can we stop it?  If we seek to regulate guns, we are “unconstitutionally" violating our national right to bear arms. If we seek to arm absolutely everyone, it's my guess that the more people who are armed, the more that deadly altercations will inevitably occur. 

If we can't constitutionally regulate gun manufacturers, or gun owners, we're going to have to regulate our whole selves! The only option left to us is to install sufficiently armed security personnel in all stores, shopping centers, schools, and even in churches, synagogues, and mosques. If hiring sufficiently trained marshals to protect the public safety must be our ultimate public policy, someone is going to have to pay for their training and, ultimately, their salaries as well.

The fact of the matter is that we will never be able to protect everyone against what one person is determined to do, especially if they're willing to sacrifice their freedom and, ultimately, their life in order to empty their tankful of emotions, resentments, and odd spiritual and political commitments to achieve their goals.

Most of the tragedies we read and hear about, and even see on television and through the internet are impersonal because they are happening to someone else in a distant place. What happened to ten people in Buffalo, New York also happened to more people in the Ukraine at roughly the same hour, 16 days ago. However, with all due empathy toward the Ukrainians, what happened in Buffalo was more real and especially painful to me,  because it happened here, close to home.

As President of the New York State School for the Blind Alumni Association, it felt like that terrorist attack was potentially an attack on some of my personal constituents. Insofar as I'm concerned, an attack on Blacks is also an attack on non Blacks who live in Buffalo. People named Paul, Linda, Richard, Karlene, Felecia, Judy, Terry and many others were potential victims.

Buffalo, New York, is the home of many of my fondest memories. It’s where a number of my closest friends dwell. Buffalo, New York, is deep and rich in people and institutions. Here are just a few: The Buffalo Bills, The Buffalo Sabres, The Buffalo Bisons, temporarily, the Buffalo basketball Braves, disc jockeys Dick Biondi, George Lorenz, Danny Neverth, sportscasters Stan Barron and Van Miller, newsman Irv Weinstein, and, oh, so many more. 

We'll find a solution to gun violence when we stop socially analyzing it and politically excusing it and start taking it very, very personally, rather than academically.

Oh, one more wonderful memory. I knew a guy who used to get a kick out of spelling Buffalo phonetically. It went like this: B-U-P-H-P-H-A-L-E-A-U-X!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY