By David Fortier
Come Sunday morning, we will have had time to stop and reflect about the previous week. Each time, I saw a police car, either zipping up the Avenue or patrolling on the highway, lights illuminated, often flashing, more thoughts, mostly about the families of the deceased officers.
When the Inspector General’s Office released early in the week a preliminary report about the fatal encounter, including video from Officer Alec Iurato’s body camera, I watched, heart heavy, horrified, knowing full well that the video is a necessity and is public, but ultimately deciding after writing a brief report for TBE that if our readers wanted to see it themselves, they would have to make the effort to find it themselves.
On Friday morning, the morning of the funeral services, as I drove to work, Bristol’s Tower 2 fire engine lumbered up Rt. 72, toward East Hartford and the memorial services later that morning, a reminder of how we are all connected. Further on, more illuminated lights on cruisers appeared in my rearview mirror and at times further up ahead in the early morning traffic. This was hours before the official start of the commemoration. I could only imagine, then, how many others among us, in sedans and SUVs, would be joining them there. And, of course, how many others among us would be joining them in spirit.
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Fall is here, and with it, the changing leaves, this year in a remarkable display of scarlets, oranges and yellows, come tumbling down reminding us that we are part of an unending cycle, and with it, I hope, the knowledge of how fragile this all is, and how we need to do our best to stand by one another, because things do get difficult, and yet we manage to do the best we can.
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This week TBE picks up with our regular reports, yes, we did continue to cover sports last week, and had one report on Lake Compounce’s “Fall Phantom Fest,” but this week we have a few stories about the upcoming elections on Nov. 8. Let us know how we are doing, and better, drop us a note with questions. A letter to the editor is always an option. Remember to follow our letter policy—word length and tone matter. Email correspondence to editor@bristoledition.org.
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Reading listening this week included at least one esoteric offering, a London Review of Books podcast, entitled, “Will the world end in 2178?” which discusses asteroids and whether we should be afraid of them, as in, will one hit the earth and, well, you know the rest. Another one, from the podcast Capitalisn’t, featured a long interview, “Thomas Piketty on creating a more equal society.”
Be kind to each other.
“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.
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