Paul Girard, Me, Egypt and Socialism

"Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions."
-- G.K. Chesterton 1874-1936 "Heretics" (1905)

Randall Tessier

HEROES: DAVID KATO
NYTimes: Ugandan Who Spoke Up for Gays Is Beaten to Death
NAIROBI, Kenya — David Kato knew he was a marked man.
As the most outspoken gay rights advocate in Uganda, a country where homophobia is so severe that Parliament is considering a bill to execute gay people, Mr. Kato had received a stream of death threats. On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Kato was beaten to death with a hammer.See More

A few months ago, a Ugandan newspaper ran an antigay diatribe with Mr. Kato’s picture on the front page under a banner urging, “Hang Them.”
“David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. evangelicals in 2009,” Val Kalende..., the chairwoman of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, said in a statement. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood.”

C.: Did you know Paul Girard from Gwinn H.S. (or Marquette)? He was a good friend of mine. His parents were also my neighbors. His murder, 22 years ago, has never been solved.

Randall Tessier

Dear C.: I'm 60. I attended Gwinn and lived on the base from 1966 - 69. I say this because he may have occupied a time period apart from my days in Gwinn. Given this thread, I have to ask if he was gay. Further, if he was, do you think his sexual orientation and something to do with his demise? I'm going to see if I can find out some background on this on google.

Best - Randy

Randall Tessier

20th anniversary of the Paul Girard killing
September 30, 2008 - By KIM HOYUM

MARQUETTE - During the early morning hours of a fall day 20 years ago, Paul Girard was stabbed to death on Presque Isle in Marquette. Today, his brutal murder remains unsolved.

After 20 years, there's not much in the way of physical evidence that could be found. Instead, police hope for one more person to tell what they know about the events of Sept. 30, 1988. The Marquette City Police Department gets tips and leads regularly about Girard's murder, but detectives are still waiting for the one that can break the case open.

"We interviewed dozens of people and have a suspect developed. We still receive calls about it; in fact, we got one last week," said Detective Capt. Gordon Warchock of the Marquette police. "We're still looking for that one piece of evidence to take it to the prosecutor's office. You never know when it could come, in a week or in a year."

What is known is that sometime in the early morning hours of Friday, Sept. 30, 1988, Girard was stabbed dozens of times near Charlie Kawbawgam's grave on Presque Isle, his body left for passersby to find when the sun rose. He was 34.

At 10:14 a.m., police were dispatched to the murder scene, after two people out for a morning walk around the island came upon Girard's body.

Sal Sarvello, retired chief of police, was then captain of detectives with the department and remembers it was a busy morning, with detectives already working on arrests in a drug theft case. A patrol officer and Detective Lt. Hank Steede were the first to arrive at Presque Isle, and Sarvello followed shortly afterward.

Current city police Chief Mike Angeli had been a detective for a year and a half then, and said the investigators are confident Girard was killed in the same place his body was found.

"We immediately started to retrace his tracks for the previous 24 hours," Angeli said.

Details began to emerge; Girard lived in south Marquette and worked at D&D Rental, close to home. He was originally from Gwinn.

He had been seen at a few local bars and restaurants the evening before, so detectives began to examine the hours just prior to the killing.

Police were looking for someone who knew Girard; the manner of his death was not typical of a murder committed by a stranger.

"The number of stab wounds were obviously overkill. Some were post-mortem, which indicates anger," Angeli explained.

Sarvello said the department requested suspect profiles from the FBI and regional profiling centers, which bore out investigators' conclusions about the killer.

"We don't believe it was a random act of violence," Warchock said. "We believe he knew his assailant and had met his assailant. The length of time of that acquaintance is hard to say, but we don't believe it was a stranger."

Angeli said detectives began to investigate Girard's personal life, and - then and now - believe the motive for the killing was at least in part animosity toward gays.

"I don't think it was any secret that he was gay," Angeli said. "We feel there was some type of relationship to his lifestyle, so in today's world, it's fair to say it could be classified as a hate crime."

It wasn't until the next April that the investigation began to focus on one main suspect, Sarvello said. A Michigan State Police detective heard about the suspect while working on an unrelated case, and tipped the city police.

Although the person suspected of the murder was interviewed at length, no evidence came of it.

"We've chased down lots of leads and other suspects have been suggested to us, with none of them panning out with any credibility," Angeli said.

The main suspect was never arrested or charged, with not enough evidence to support either. Warchock said the man has since moved out of the area.

Sarvello said one of the evidence problems inherent in the case was the location of the murder.

"It occurred in a city park, in the middle of the night, so there's less witnesses, less physical evidence," he said.

Angeli added the six-month gap between the murder and pinpointing the suspect also was plenty of time for physical evidence to disappear or become useless to investigators.

Sarvello noted Girard's case is one of only two unsolved murders in Marquette. The other case is that of Erin Taylor, a 24-year-old Marquette woman who was killed in August 2000.

"I would have given anything to have those two unsolved murders closed before I left, just for the sake of the families involved," he said.

Police aren't calling the case impossible, though.

Angeli and Sarvello said they believe others had direct knowledge of the Girard murder that night.

"We believe one person actually did the killing, but that he may have had contact with other people in the aftermath," Angeli said.

Sarvello said the case is still viable for that reason. "There's still a viable suspect and to this day, I believe it is that person and it just never came around to him," he said. "I believe there are at least one or two people in this area that still have knowledge of this murder. It hasn't been put away and forgotten. It's still here, right in front of us."

Angeli agreed the case is far from forgotten.

"Even though it's 20 years old, we think about it regularly," he said. "Maybe someone will want to tell us something now that they didn't want to tell us then."

Information about the murder can be directed to the Marquette City Police Department at 228-0400.

C.: He would have been in his late 50's, had reddish-blond hair, big guy, very nice-looking, friendly... too friendly. Grew up between Carlshend and Little Lake, on a farm at the corner of 545 S. and 456. Yes he was gay.

Angeli said, "I don't think it was any secret that he was gay." But, his parents didn't know until the day after his murder, when it was splashed in huge type all across the front page of the Mining Journal that "Marquette's Gay Community"... was alarmed by his slaying. Oddly, the reporter hadn't even bothered to interview anyone other than police. His dad died just weeks after Paul was killed, and his mother quietly sold the farm and moved away. We, in the neighborhood, thought he just couldn't take the shock of having his only son hacked to death, and the added shame of how the paper treated the murder, like some lurid tabloid, just trying to make a few extra bucks off the victim's sexual orientation.

ME

Randall Tessier

The main reason I left Marquette in 1971 was because I felt there was no future there for a musician who wanted to get somewhere. Culturally, Ann Arbor seemed the logical choice. What made it a no-brainer is that the prosecutor advised me t...o leave town or else. I had been in court trying to overturn my expulsion (and lost) for my underground newspaper at Gwinn, "The Liberal Student Dispatch." I was also a political counter-culture figure who was set up for a pot-bust. They gave me 60 days, 54 of which were in solitary. Upon my release our whole band (Walrus) moved to Ann Arbor. I've been here ever since. Your back story on how the paper and police handled it is too sad for words.

C.: That sounds like a really horrible experience. I'd be really curious to know what Gwinn H.S. considered unacceptable enough to expel a student in 1971. (That is, if it's fit to print here. lol)

Randall Tessier

Dear C.:

1969 was the time. I had started the debate (forensics) team at GHS with the special ed. teacher, Marilyn Kocsis. She was subsequently fired. Since I lived on the base, and had passed out 25 badly mimeographed copies of the L...SD, the Air Force got involved, kicked the family off the base, and banished me from all military installations from that time hence. Marilyn's husband, a legal aid lawyer, took my case and we lost.

M.: If the culprit will kill someone for sexual orientation, he will certainly kill in order to avoid life in the 'Carp River College,' won't he. Witnesses have survival instincts too.

My bandmate is the head of the Oakland Crime Lab.* Aside fr...om extreme budget problems, their biggest problem is witness silence. Open your mouth, close the book! The risk of harm to the witness and/or loved ones is too great. They WANT to help, but they can't.

* She would like one of those magic blue lights and would also appreciate DNA turnaround within twenty minutes. She doubts that will happen. She is also never first on scene with a sidearm drawn; she doesn't HAVE a sidearm. She does, however, play a helluva guitar and sings and writes very well.

C.: Randall, I'm going to have to tell that story to my youngest son, who recently transferred to MSHS after being unable to start a forensics team last year at Gwinn. (He'd been a state finalist in multiples during 10th grade, when he attended Birmingham Seaholm.)

It's amazing that the Air Force would penalize your entire family for something a child wrote! But, that was wartime, and I remember our country being riven by extremes, a bit like now (and in probably quite the opposite of your experience, since I grew up in Ann Arbor). Interesting acronym, somewhat subversive-sounding... hmmm...

Randall Tessier I so wish I had a copy. After the Walrus moved to Ann Arbor in 1972, a grad student at UM doing her dissertation on subversive media (underground newspapers) contacted me about getting a copy. I'm guessing she found some of the stuff in the Mining Journal about the case's disposition in circuit court. I can tell you that the L,S,and D where in tacky block letters with the flags's stars and bars as an interior pattern. The principal at the time was Henry Sherry.

C.: I wonder if the school would still have a copy. That belongs in an archive! My exhusband did some volunteer work for the historical society, and he said Gwinn's social history was a bit sanitized, so I doubt they'd have one. Might be one in your court file... which I may go pull...

Randall Tessier I would love to see those old headlines. A word about the base. The locals who were there when the base was in full cold war bloom, Suardinis et.al., will never forget it. It brought a certain worldliness to Gwinn that's now a remnant of another time.

EGYPT

Keith The U.S. once again has been in bed with another oppressive regime.

Randall Tessier In bed, more like flagrante delicto. Everyone's focusing on Obama's comment that Mubarak should "refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters." But when these riots first started the rhetoric included the caveat that the PROTESTERS should be restrained in their methods, which I read as a coded message meant to contain the riots to the extent that political control by our puppet-stooge, Mubarak, would be maintained.

Mike I hope so, too, but if the Muslim Brotherhood gains power, it is like going from the frying pan to the skillet.

Randall Tessier That's funny, Mike. "the frying pan to the skillet." Whether you intended it or not, that's the catch-22. To quote Huck Finn (actually Twain) on the value of moral pragmatism: "do whichever come handiest at the time." Meaning, when there's no difference between Mubarak's "frying pan" and the Muslim Brotherhood's "skillet," you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking it to the street.

Pat

Benjamin, refering to the pundit statement above...I guess that all depends on whether you're talkin tier 1 reality, (that which we can readily see and try to understand, although we the populace may disagree on problems and solutions), in ...which they, the pundits are reasonably accurate to the extent that variations in possibilities do exist; or tier 2 reality, in which they (the pundits) are dually effective and perhaps most importantly keeping us distracted from that which is really going on.//Randall, whats equally funny is the other catch-22 you/Mike mention. Mubarak's frying pan and Brotherhood Skillet, sounds an awful lot like the same posture we resemble.//Benjamin, (tier 2) IS undoubtley delivering, perhaps 'Who is in power?' is more appropriate. {puppet-stooge, that's good, I'll have to remember that one}

SOCIALISM

Dave: Democracy has always been a Socialistic democracy since its inception. To think otherwise is to put your head in the sand.

A quick example:
...Private insurance companies/all insurance companies are no more than a form of Socialism, yet nobody says a word about that. People that don't, or have not gotten sick yet, are paying for those that do. The bigger the pool, the cheaper the premium. Period.
So saying---I believe healthcare is a right and not a privilege.
Your family or mine is no better than the guy busting his ass for minimum wage providing services the rest of us need.
Problem is, he/she is living check to check, and can no more afford healthcare than the man in the moon.
He should be able to have the same health insurance as the rest of us!
1 in every 7 Americans earns below the poverty level.
Health insurance isn't even a gleam in their collective eyes!
Yes, the government has an obligation to see to the welfare of its citizens health. We're the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't.
Our infant mortality rate ranks us about 25-30, somewhere in there, if memory serves. worse than 3rd world countries. Our life expectancy is way down, too, and yet we spend almost twice as much per capita as any other country that provides its citizens with healthcare. Private insurance ripoff and greed!
If taking pop machines and junk food machines out of schools is mandated by the government---all I can say is-----FINALLY!
Bring it on!

The list of Socialistically enhanced programs, grants, and otherwise in this country is long....very long, and yet, I guess all THAT kind of Socialistic stuff is OK with you?

Tom:. Socialists get so defensive so quickly. I was only talking about burgers and desserts. You took it way off topic. I'm gonna have some ice cream now.

Dave: From a discussion of the definition of a hero to you inserting how government wants to regulate subversive food choices?

You were on topic?

Nice try, but quite laughable... -:)

Tom:

To bring it back on topic, my friend, you are a hero of the socialist revolution. My hat is off to you.

I think it was first our friendly host who commented that he occasionally succumbs when confronted with the temptation of a burger at Hardee's. Not sure what that has to do with heroism, but I merely commented that his opportunities may be short lived, which you then defended by articulating why it is in fact best for the government to restrict what we eat, among other things.

I was merely stating that Randy's opportunities to be a hero and eat a burger once in a while might be endangered. So, while I am unclear as to who took us off topic, I willingly plead to guilty to that crime if it makes you feel better, my friend.

Meanwhile, I will have Buffalo Wild Wings, Cheese and crackers, more than one glass of wine with a meal, and a rare (in terms of frequency and cooking severity) burger while I still can, until you win.

God help us all when you do.

I retract that last statement, since that would take us off topic, a crime which I do not want to be guilty of more than once!

Randall Tessier

ATTN: NOTHING IS EVER OFF TOPIC!!!

Every human being deserves to be cared for when they are sick.

The argument is this: the government shouldn't mandate that a person MUST have health care. Ok, so that same poor, misguided patriot (the rich ...have no need of medical coverage) who is against "socialism" then goes to the emergency room. Here, we do the right thing morally (so far), which is to care for the sick (Jesus' idea). Which, facts have shown, is much MORE expensive than universal health care.

Yesterday the Republicans said they wanted to pass deficit reductions. Fine, a worthy idea, BUT, they offered NO CUTS in the military or homeland security budgets. Is this right? So my question is this: does it bother us more to provide medical care for the poor and needy than it does to produce weapons -- many of which are used to kill young American men and women?

So we give Hamid Karzai the money while one of the victims (Randy Gardner) injured in the Tuscon shootings has to pay a $10.000.00 deductible?

As to "what's good for us" and "who should decide": are we saying that cancers and other horrible diseases might be good for us, depending on one's subjective view (would this apply to their children). This smacks of the kind of cultural relativism (good, bad, right, wrong are all subjective assessments) at the heart of both the right and the left's irreconcilable differences.

Caring for our sick brothers and sisters is a GOOD thing. And this agenda should be a top priority. First CAT and PET scanners, THEN airport body scanners.

Love - Randy