Done With Gun Violence

I doubt that my blog post will have much focus today. To my readers, I ask for your patience.

Last night, around the time nine parishioners of an African-Methodist-Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina, were shot to death, I was having dinner with members of my church’s small group at a local Panera restaurant. We laughed, broke bread, and prayed for one another. Normally, we would’ve met at the church that evening studying the Bible, praying for one another, and praising God.

People should feel safe at church to worship and pray. For this reason, I am stunned and angry to hear of the mass shooting yesterday evening at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Nine people died, including a state senator who was the church pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney. A young Caucasian man allegedly sat in the pews for about an hour before opening fire on the praying group. He allegedly said told a parishioner during a break in the violence, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

Law enforcement authorities arrested Dylann Storm Roof this morning in Shelby, North Carolina. They are investigating this massacre as a white-on-blacks hate crime. Frankly, I’m surprised the suspect didn’t kill himself when he was confronted.

This violence has to stop. I realize that it’s a hackneyed phrase, but I use it out of frustration. President Barack Obama, in remarks made today at the White House, was also frustrated and saddened by the news of this latest mass shooting during his term. Among those killings were the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 26 people, 20 of them children, and another 2012 shooting, this time in a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee that took the lives of five men and a woman.

“But let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” a somber Obama told reporters with Vice President Joe Biden standing silently next to him. “It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it. I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it. And at some point, it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively.”

Whatever the solution is, it isn’t arming clergy and parishioners. It definitely isn’t having armed guards at the doors of houses of worship. Furthermore, the idea of churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples locked to the public with security guards to buzz them in seems antithetical with beliefs that doors should be open to those who wish to worship.

So, dear readers, if you have suggestions on how to deal with gun violence in general and mass shootings in particular without arming everybody (including children) and closing gathering places, please let me know. As author and talk show host Tavis Smiley wrote in USA Today, “What kind of nation do we want to be? Who are we, really?”

Indeed.

Writing Diva

Fleeing the Titanic: Short-Selling the “Money Pit”

This entry of “A Single Life” is the hardest I’ve had to write so far. I’m not proud of the financial choices I’ve made. However, if my experience can serve as a cautionary tale to someone reading this, I truly hope I’ve helped.

After having owned my two-bedroom, one-bathroom townhome for slightly more than eight years, I’ve thrown in the towel. I’m short-selling it. I do it reluctantly because I can no longer continue to pay a total of $2,400 in mortgage payment and monthly homeowners’ association dues. I should not be paying this much for a two-bedroom townhouse in a north Vacaville complex with renters making up half the residents.

I hadn’t planned to buy a home in 2006. However, a fatal shooting next door to my rental home in Fairfield prompted me to move. But I did so in fear, and I shouldn’t have. (I will try to limit my “should’ve, could’ve, and would’ve” statements in this entry.) I wanted to find a place that would allow me to keep my cat, Tuffy. So, after calling several mortgage brokers, one told me that I could buy a home without a down payment. In hindsight, I file this exchange under “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

So, armed with a Fannie Mae loan, I searched in Fairfield, Vacaville, and Elk Grove until my broker steered me to the north Vacaville townhouse I call home. The 40-year, 10-years-interest-only mortgage was for the full asking price of the home – about $299,000.

Two years later, shortly after the start of the Great Recession, the value of my home plummeted to $80,000. I, along with millions of other homeowners, learned a new economic term: “underwater mortgage,” in which the mortgage amount is more than the value of the home.

In 2011, I refinanced the mortgage through the federal Home Affordability Refinance Program, or HARP, hoping to lower my monthly payments. While I received a lower interest rate, the new mortgage lender added the principal and interest, so I ended up paying nearly $100 more each month.

Late last year, the Solano County Assessor-Recorder’s Office assessed my property at $150,000. While the increased value was encouraging, the last straw came when I received my annual escrow statement. Because of an increase in the property tax and insurance, my mortgage payment went up by $150 to $1,920. Add the $280 in HOA dues, that’s $2,400 a month. (The plurality of the dues goes toward water for the lush community lawn. During a drought, even.) The increased in my mortgage payment ate into my groceries budget. I was miserable and decided to look into selling my home.

I contacted a friend of a friend from church to find out what my options are. He turned out to be a local Realtor. After discussing the pros and cons of keeping the home, I signed papers allowing him to show my home.

What the Realtor neglected to mention is that, in addition to taking still pictures of my home, he videotaped the inside of my messy home and posted it onto You Tube. Had I known that my messy house would be on the Internet, I would’ve told him, “No!” But what’s done is done.

Long story short, we received four offers and accepted one from a young couple with a toddler daughter. Now it’s up to my mortgage lender to approve the short sale. Once the approval goes through, escrow should take between 30 and 45 days, my Realtor said. In the meantime, I am searching for a pet-friendly home, preferably a house over an apartment, because I have a piano and two cats.

Right now, I’m soured on the American Dream of owning a home. I will focus on paying my bills and boosting my retirement contributions. Maybe someday I will own a home. But next time, I will put some skin in the game.

Writing Diva

Hey, Academy, How About More Color and More Women?

The following is an open letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

 Greetings, Academy voters,

After viewing your nominations for the 87^th annual Academy Awards®, I thought, “These choices could be a topic of Saturday Night Live’s ‘REALLY?!! With Seth and Amy.’” For example:

• You nominated “Selma” for best picture and best original song (kudos to John Legend and Lonnie “Common” Lynn for “Glory”) but did not give nods to lead actor David Oyelowo, who gave a towering performance as Martin Luther King Jr., or Bradford Young for cinematography, or, most glaring, Ava DuVernay for best director. You could’ve made history by nominating DuVernay, who would’ve been the first African-American woman earning a best director nomination and only the fifth woman. REALLY?! How about director Angelina Jolie for "Unbroken"? (Regarding Oyelowo, whose name you should learn to pronounce since he’ll be back, I get that you made room for Bradley Cooper in “American Sniper.” But this is his third consecutive nomination. Make room for someone else!)
• I agree with four of the five leading actress nominees. You might as well engrave Julianne Moore’s statue now for "Still Alice" since she’s way overdue. But I’m scratching my head over your nomination of Marion Cotillard for “Two Days, One Night,” which hasn’t even been released in the Sacramento area, over Jennifer Aniston’s performance in “Cake.” (Sigh.) REALLY?!
• Regarding the roster of nominated animated films, I am thrilled to see “How to Train Your Dragon 2” in the pack. But why not “The Lego Movie” too? REALLY?!
• I’m not going to fault Glen Campbell’s nomination for best original song for “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” although I have yet to see his film debut in the Sacramento area. But I believe that his song may be the dark horse in this category. However, couldn’t you have made room for Lorde’s “Yellow Flicker Beat” from “The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part 1” as a nod to younger viewers? REALLY?!
• Finally, I am glad that you invited (best supporting actor nominee) Barkhad Abdi, (best supporting actress winner) Lupita Nyong’o, cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, costume designer William Change Suk Ping, and director Gina Price-Bythewood to join your august body last year. How about adding some more women and people of color since the Academy is 94 percent white and 76 percent men? REALLY?!

I’m done with my annual nominations rant. Let’s see how things turn out on February 22.

Writing Diva