Tragedy revisited

Congresswoman Jackie Speir (l)
and I  in her DC office.

OK, here is another weird six degrees of separation story. 

With all of the tragedy experienced in Connecticut, Senator Diane Feinstein has been in the news recently. Her repeated attempts at a ban on assault weapons has taken on a renewed vigor in the wake of the senseless murder of children in Sandy Hook

It goes back to November - December of 1978, I was living in Napili, north of Lahaina on Maui, Hawaii. At the time I was working at the Sheraton Hotel at Black Rock in Kaanapali, while taking a brief break from college. As I went to work at the restaurant one evening I heard the news about the Jonestown massacre where Leo Ryan was shot to death and his 28 year-old congressional staffer Jackie Speier was shot five times and left for dead in the Guyanese jungle.

Mountain Biking legend Gary Fisher (r)
and I outside Senator Diane Feinstein's
office in the Hart Senate Bldg.

Meanwhile in San Francisco after Dan White had recently announced his resignation from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. After reconsidering, he intended to lobby Mayor George Moscone to ask for his seat back. When the news reached the SF Bay Area of the deaths of almost 1,000 members of Jim Jone's church, nearly all from the Bay Area, the mayor delayed while the city mourned the tragic events. 

On November 27, Moscone had already decided to appoint someone else for the seat and it was on that day that Milk went to Moscone's office only to be confronted by an unknowing Feinstein as he was on his way out and en route to kill Harvey Milk. Later Feinstein would be appointed Mayor. 

Showing off a Congressional Record from the
111th Congress. Thanks Rep. Speier.

Later a grieving Moscone family would arrive on Maui during December of that year. I was also working room service at the Hotel and would deliver the gift baskets and food to the family at their cottage near the beach. Now it is easy to see why Senator Feinstein, having been directly affected with two major tragedies would respond to the Sandy Hook tragedy the way she has. 

Recently on visits to our nation's Capitol I would call upon Senator Feinstein and Congresswoman Speier sympathetic to how the tragedy had effected their own lives. It is somewhat strange how later on I would meet these two women whose lives had been effected with violence and tragedy.