It Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Sings

Posted on by Thor

COVID-19 is not over. Though numbers of cases are as low as last March 2020, they have begin to rise 10% over the last week. Part of the reason is that the vaccine roll out has slowed and there is a new variant from India now called the Beta variant which is 60% more transmissible.  The World Health Organization has asked that vaccinated individuals should continue to wear masks to help stop the spread of the virus. Fully vaccinated individuals are 75% to 90% less likely to get infected. However there are breakthrough cases which are less severe than getting infected with no vaccination.

The CDC in America however has not changed it’s no mask recommendation for vaccinated individuals in America. Should someone have a breakthrough case, they might be a symptomatic and have a mild case, however any unvaccinated people they might meet could get a far worse case of the virus and die.

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings. I am going back to wearing my mask indoors. The Beta variant is 60% more transmissible that previous strains of COVID. It has been known to infect people crowded into stadiums and outdoor concerts.

After Pulse: Zoe Colon

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Zoe Colon is co-founder of Proyecto Somos Orlando and she is a director of the Hispanic Federation‘s chapter in the South East.

Zoe was supposed to go to Pulse on the the night of June 12, 2016. She had been doing voter registration and was supposed to do voter registration at the clubs. She and the canvases were all ready to go. Ricardo, a canvasser who  had recently arrived from Puerto Rico called and he said that the club had advised that it was probably not a good night because Gay Days had just ended and it was going to be super packed. Zoe was upset. It would have been a great opportunity to even set up in the parking lot.

The next morning Nancy Rosado called and asked if Zoe had seen the news. Ricardo, the canvasser had decided to go on his own. He texted at 4 AM saying they should not go to Pulse. He had no shoes on and he was in someones car. There was a shooting and his credit card was still inn the club.

Co-workers from New York began to text asking if she was OK. The magnitude of what had happened hadn’t sunk in. Every radio was tuned to the news. The world stood still. As the names were published, she realized how many were Latino. Zoe decided to go to the Center. She spoke to Christina there about how Spanish speaking counselors  would be needed. That is how it all started. There were people inn the club that night who were undocumented. Family might not come forward to file a claim for fear of deportation. She was concerned that people might be re-victimized if they were paired up with someone who did not fully understand them or empathize with them. Clergy could also do more damage than good. Nancy Rosado brought in an amazing wealth of knowledge and years of experience.

After the Center, she went to the Hampton Inn with Christina, and Nancy. Families up to this point had not been able to talk to anyone in Spanish. At least 10 people at the Inn wanted to help bring about advocacy. That night they called a press conference. It was held at the Hispanic Federation inn the court yard. There were about 60 people there. They wanted the Latino community to know the phone numbers they needed to call.

Somos Orlando started out as a hashtag. It means Latinos, Latin X, LGBTQ, we all are Orlando. This was a movement about not being invisible.  She went to the Hispanic Federation and asked what could be dome to move things forward. The Federation has a relationship  with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jennifer Lopez. They ended up creating a song which raised money for Somos Orlando. Things happened so fast. It was emotionally draining. Love Makes the World Go Round.

After Pulse: Kathy DeVault

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Kathy DeVault is director of strategic partnership for the City of Orlando. She directed Camping World Stadium as it acted as a hub for victims families and survivors in the aftermath of the Pulse Shooting.

On June 11, 2016 Kathy was celebrating a college friend’s birthday. Her friend is very involved in the LGBTQ community. She loves to dance and many of her friends are gay men. She wanted a low key evening with five of her friends that night. They went to a desert shop in Ivanhoe Village. It as a relaxed evening with wine and desert.

The next morning about 4AM, the chief of staff, sent about 10 staff a text message that there was an active shooter  at Pulse and Mayor Buddy Dyer was on scene. Details were scarce. Her response was “I am here and will stay out of the way until I am needed.” She watched the news unfold that morning on TV.

She finally got a call from the deputy chief of staff that she was needed. She ran to city hall to get ear phones for the mayor. She parked near Chipolte south of Pulse and got through the barricades to get thing on scene. A lot of politicians were on site for the press conference and it happened to be an election period. Kathy was called to the scene too help greet and cater to the elected officials that were showing up. The mobile command center was a little south of Pulse.

At dusk the press conferences were over and city staff went to the emergency operations center. Kassandra, the press secretary, was overwhelmed by media inquiries, so Kathy decided to become her right hand woman. She spent the next several days answering calls from national and in international media. Media ascended so quickly because just the night before that had been covering the singer Christina Grimmie shooting at the Plaza in Orlando.

Later that week Kathy helped set up the Family Unification Center in the Beardal Senior Center. That is where families went to get updates form the hospital and FDLE about their loved ones. Media largely took over the parking lot and they got in the faces of family trying to get n and out of the center. The FBI and red cross wanted a more secure location. The decision was made to use Camping World Stadium. A city lead was needed. Kathy as recruited. A list of about 35 to 40 agencies was compiled who would become a part of the family assistance center. The Center needed to be open for families by 10 AM the next morning. Well, OK!

After Pulse: Sherri Monroe

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Sherri Monroe is the executive director of the Red Cross of Greater Orlando. The red cross provided immediate services to first responders and victims families in the aftermath of the Pulse massacre.

At that time she was stationed in Daytona. On the Sunday morning following the shooting she turned on the news. Shootings are pretty common in any city, but the numbers were shocking. This wasn’t some kind of altercation. She stated to get a feeling of the scope of what was going on. You don’t expect something like that to happen in your area.

She knew Red Cross would be responding but se  wasn’t part of the Orlando branch. Red Cross was one of the first organizations on the scene other than first responders. Their roll initially was supporting first responders. It’s summer its hot, so we provided water, snacks and food.

What Red Cross did in this situation is sort of similar to hat the FBI did. No matter how prepared Orlando Police might have been, they were not prepared for this. The FBI knew what to do because they have seen this all before. Red Cross sort of did that on the community side. Within 24 hours people were on the ground here who had been through Sandy Hook, and other mass shooting events. They had seen this before. A local church immediately provided their address as a family assistance center. Red Cross stepped in to say ‘Look this isn’t going to work.’ It was fine for the moment, but there was no way to keep the families protected. That was part of the reason Camping World Stadium became an assistance center. They could set up all the resources from all the different agencies. But most importantly they had a fence around it. They could let the families in and close the gates to keep media and curiosity seekers out.

The Red Cross worked closely with the city to help them figure out what they needed to do next. They also let then know what was coming. You have to stay in front of the situation. It is hard to come back from behind. The following week with all of the vigils, and all of the events, the Red Cross brought in a lot of mental health counselors that could be at those events. They also provided water and simple things like that. The city had set up a 242-7 call line out of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), but they didn’t have enough people to man it. The Red Cross ran it for them. Sherri was responsible for keeping enough volunteers on the lines. People might call if they could not locate someone, or their car was stuck in the area around Pulse which was locked down, or a call might be about how to transport a body back to Puerto Rico. Mental health counselors were available to talk to the people taking the phone calls. Some calls were challenging.

After Pulse: Andria Estrella – Roa

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Andria Estrelle – Roa is a mental health counselor. She has been a volunteer counselor to victims families and survivors of the Pulse Nightclub massacre that happened n June 12, 2016.

For the sake of self care Andria seldom watches the news but something compelled her to turn it on June 12, 2016 at about 8AM. The camera panned bu a white van and there was concern about possible explosives. The news said that 15 people had died.

She had a meeting with an intern. At 9 AM in the meeting she looked at the news again. At that point the number was 25. A friend texted and said that a mutual friend was at the club. She started calling and texting him and she could not reach him. She called and texted his dad. He hadn’t hear anything. By about 10 or 11 AM the number of people who had died had once again climbed. By 11 AM all the One Blood trucks were out at the local churches.

She spoke with a colleague and they agreed that they had to do something. They agreed to offer free counseling. They sent out a post. They still weren’t fully aware of the scope of hat had happened. Because this affected the LGBTQ community, they offered three free counseling sessions that Sunday to anyone affected. Estrella then got in touch with the Center which was coordinating all the crisis counselors. By the end of that day on Sunday she had found out that her friend was OK.

Monday, she went to the Unitarian Church since it was designated a s a counseling site. She did one crisis counseling session that night with someone who walked in. He had been at Pulse the night of the shooting and escaped. Tuesday night she found out the Citrus Bowl was going to be outfitted as a response center. She was tying to get on the list to help at the Citrus Bowl. Bi-lingual therapists were in short supply. Wednesday morning she went to the Citrus Bowl. She wasn’t on the list but made her way inside.

There was a welcome area for the families and survivors. In a closed room all the providers were set up. The Mexican and Colombian consulates were there, the Puerto Rican chamber of commerce, DCS, The Center, Major Airlines to provide free flight for families, the State Attorney, any and every social service and governmental agency was there. It was mind boggling. It made me proud to be from Orlando. Crisis Counselors were on the next floor up. Disney had donated plush Mickey Mouses for the children and survivors held them as well. This should not have happened here. This is the happiest place in the world.

Families were not going upstairs so she went downstairs and joined the Center where she could talk to people. She was at the Citrus Bowl Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Anybody who was at Pulse that night, would be eligible for victims compensation. Immediate family members of the 49 would also be eligible for the compensation as well which would provide up to $10,000 worth of mental health counseling.   The family would have to pay first and then submit the receipt to the state. That seemed a stressful way to offer help. The family would only get 66.67% of the reimbursement from the state. That is just stupid.

She found out that she could become a state vendor and she could charge the state on behalf of the client. The client would not have too  pay her. Families and survivors never had to pay. In the first two to three weeks no one sought help. People were in shock. They tried to return to life as normal to ignore what had happened. In July she was flooded with sessions. Those who got out of the club without physical wounds had emotional wounds. They went back to work and found out they could not return to life as normal.

In July she was seeing about 20 Pulse survivors a week for two to three months consistently. She began seeing the physically injured as well. The emotionally injured could process and return to life withing the two or three month sessions. They might have family support, friend support which helps in recovery. Estrella never tells her clients that they have to get over things. She helps her clients live in a new reality. They learn to appreciate that they got our and survived and can write a new story. Physically injured survivors came months later. Most of those were in home visits. They were so focused on their physical recover that there emotional recovery took a back seat. They were relatively fine with family and community support and media interviews. But eventually they could not sleep any more. Their emotional injuries were left untended as they recovered physically. Healing does not happen quickly.

 

 

Jim Coffin After Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Jim Coffin is from the Interfaith Council of Central Florida. Jim is an interfaith community leader. The interfaith Council began over 30 years ago as the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Jim has been the director of the Interfaith Council since 2011.

June 12 is Jim’s oldest sons birthday. Jim and his wife had planned a trip to Atlanta Georgia for about 8 days. His daughter in law worked for a hotel chain, so they had a great room deal. When they heard the the news of the Pulse shooting they had to decide if they would actually go. Perhaps he could help from Atlanta. They realized it was a time to put aside all personal things. He had to focus on where the need was which was Orlando.

Jim immediately looked to see what he could do. He realized an interfaith prayer service would be needed. Monday night there was an interfaith service at Saint James Cathedral. There was Muslim representation, Jewish representation, it was quite diverse. Tuesday the First United Methodist offered their church for a service. The minister had a close connection with the LGBTQ community. They did a reading of the names of those who were killed. They had a picture of each person. Someone would stand and read details about the person and then put the picture on display at the front of the church. About 600 people attended.

When Camping World Center opened, they had every imaginable service available. It was impressive. They had travel for bringing in relatives for funerals. Airlines were giving free passage and accommodations. Intimidate cash was available. There were 30 different services like that. There was no problem getting mental health counselors. The Catholic Church had a big part on spiritual counseling. The city called and said they need pastoral counselors who are gay sensitive. Jim put out the word. That involved lots of calls from around the country and even outside the country.

Because the gunman claimed he was Muslim, there were backlash concerns in the local Muslim community and law enforcement. Jim became involved in lots of meetings with law enforcement along with other faith leaders. When Obama cam he wanted to meet with faith leaders so Jim helped line up faith leaders who could be available at the given time. On top of that it could be that nothing happens and the meeting with Obama didn’t happen. The attorney General also came down and he was asked to find faith leaders. That meeting as well didn’t come off. It is a lot like a metaphor for life, it often doesn’t come off like it is supposed to.

7PM June 12, 2021 at Pulse

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June 12, 2016 is he day 49 people died while dancing at a Pulse Latin Night celebration. At 7PM on June 1, 2021 a Remembrance Ceremony was held at the club which is still standing and surrounded by a temporary memorial wall covered in photos.

The event was to be telecast on the jumbo trons at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts front lawn as well. Concerned about crowds I considered sketching from the front lawn but decided to sketch at the club instead. est Esther Street was shut down being blocked by a pink Lynx bus. Suburban side street were shut down for blocks, and police cars blocked traffic driving north on Orange Avenue as well, effectively securing the site from any fringe lunatics.

Folding chairs were set up in the street intersection and the stage was on the North West corner of Esther and Orange. All the seats were occupied when I got there so I walked around looking for a safe spot to sketch from somewhat removed from the crowd. I settled on sketching from behind the media cameras which were set up in a line in the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot across the street from the club.

I couldn’t hear much from my vantage point but I did hear the names of the 49 victims being read. It was brutally hot and the remembrance was over just before the sun set.

2:02AM June 12, 2021 at Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content.

2:02AM June 12, 2016 is when the gunman opened fire inside the Pulse Nightclub killing 49 and injuring many more.The effects of that horrific massacre rippled outwards.

At this vigil held at 2:02AM I cold her a woman sobbing across the street as I set up to sketch.  I began sketching an hour before the vigil began. The crowd as light at first with groups of people seated on the circular benches near the temporary memorial wall covered with photos. LED lights illuminated the wall with each color of the rainbow in succession. I chose blue. A red blood drive bus was parked across Orange Avenue.

Pastor Terri Steed Pierce from Joy Metropolitan Community Church spoke to those gathered but I couldn’t hear her from where I was seated. Candles were handed out and lit. Then a group of about 6 people read out the names of the 49 who had died that night. Since I was removed from the crowd I wore my mask loosely around my neck.

An FBI agent told Pam that a copycat extremist named Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, 23, of Tampa had come to this memorial site about a year ago and sat looking for inspiration to carry out a similar attack on beaches around Tampa. Al-Azhari “expressed admiration” for the gunman responsible for the Pulse nightclub shooting and “spoke of his desire to carry out a similar mass casualty shooting.”He wanted to kill more that 49 people. When he purchased guns to carry out the attack he was actually buying from an FBI agent and was arrested. At this year’s 5 year vigil there was concern that extremists might want to attack. Plain clothes security was scattered throughout the crowd. Pam watched every car that drove by and instructed me just run should anything happen. Thankfully it was a peaceful beautiful service with love compassion and caring.

Ida Eskamani: After Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Ida Eskamani is formerly from Equality Florida, she went on to work with Representative Smith’s office as chief of staff.

Equality Florida was born at a time when no one was investing in the south when it came to LGBTQ rights. The founders felt if they build it they will come. The organization was launched 20 ears ago. There is nothing else like it. It was grass roots funded.

Ida got back from vacation on June 11, 2016, the day before the shooting at Pulse. It was the first vacation she had taken in 10 years. At 3AM she woke up from the jet lag. There were a lot of notifications on her phone. It looked like a shooting but she wasn’t aware of the severity of what was unfolding. She sent an e-mail to staff to let them know what was happening. She drifted back to sleep. When she woke up again, it was 6AM. That is when she realized this was something much more horrific. She lives about 2 miles from Pulse and she could hear helicopters overhead. The TV stayed on all day.

For the next three weeks she didn’t sleep. She was working non stop. She may never again feel the the way she did that Saturday night before Pulse happened. The first text she got from Equality Florida was to ask if all the staff were OK. All 5 staff in the Orlando area were OK. At 9AM there was a staff conference call. They agreed to draft a statement and make people aware of all the resources that were becoming available. They decided they needed to launch a fundraising page. Donors were already coming to the organization.

She wasn’t sure what roll she could play and she had to go to an event in Jacksonville Florida. Around 11AM she realized the no one had created the Go Fund Me Page yet, so she did it. She had never launched a Go Fun Me Page before. She wanted to connect it to Equality Florida’s page. But you can not connect it to a page, it has to be a person. She put a goal of $100,000. It was clear that there would be major gaps in support and anything Equality Florida could do, they wanted to do.

On the road to Jacksonville, Her boss was driving and she was checking her laptop and found her e-mail was flooding with messages. People were asking if the fundraising page was real. As they were driving she updated the description on Go Fund Me. She responded to everyone letting them know it was real and any contribution would help. By the time the Jacksonville event was over they had already hit the goal of $100,000 so they upgraded the goal to $200,000. Then it increased to $500,000 and then to 1 million. It just kept growing. It was the fasted page to reach 1 Million in Go Fund Me’s history. It was the first ever to reach 2 Million. It raised 7.8 million. Offline an additional 1.2 Million was raised. About 9.5 Million dollars were raised in total. Those donations came from 120 countries and over 120,000 people. It became known as the Pulse Victims Fund.

She suddenly had to field tons of press interviews. Press was never ending. During the dark time she would read the comments on the Go Fund Me Page where people expressed love and warmth. A little kid donated from a bakery sale to celebrities. All these gay bars had fundraisers and donated to the page. It was so powerful. Equality Florida was not in charge of dispersing the funds. The goal was for the money to go directly to victim’s families and survivors.

Pilado After Pulse

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre on June 12, 2016. It may contain sensitive and difficult to read content. Post written with narrator’s consent.  

Michael Pilado and Chimene Pinder-Hurst were interviewed in the History Center in the One Year Later exhibit space about the Pulse Nightclub Massacre community response.

Michael believes that art should be about community and healing. He works with painter Yuriy Karabasch. When Pulse happened Mikael was working on a Mural in Williamsport Pennsylvania that had over 700 inspirational people depicted. That day he painted the Florida state bird which is the Mocking Jay. The Jay holds a stick with 5 strings with 49 orange blossoms. Members of the LGBT community came out to paint the orange blossoms.

Deborah Bidel the head of the post traumatic stress disorder program of UCF called and asked him to paint Juan Ramon Guerrero and Christopher “Drew” Leinonen together and put their names in it.

He then got a call from Chimene Hurst and she asked him if he could come to Orlando to do some of his healing projects. As she was calling, a hawk flew overhead and he saw it a a sign to come to Orlando. Yuriy and Michael for the last eight years have been traveling the world creating a series of murals which will connect on the internet becoming the world mural. Each mural’s title is Inspiration with the name of the place. Here he worked on Inspiration Orlando. When he got to Orlando he and Chimene went looking for wall, talking to many business owners. They found about 30 possible walls for murals.  They wanted to find 49 locations. They spoke with the LGBT community, the Latino community and with the city. In Orlando he developed the recipe for how to do the world mural.

Chimene and Michael were at the Dr. Phillips Center where thousands of objects were left on the front lawn for the 49 who had died. Chimene asked the 49 angels if they could guide them to where they should go next to make the project a reality. Immediately when she turned around she saw a friend. She asked her if she had any walls for a mural and Chuan said yes. They went up to a property on Mills and 50 to look at a possible mural site. Michael noticed an upstairs deserted space and asked about it. It had been abandoned for years but it would eventually become the art studio where mural panels were created. As they were looking at the property a hawk flew overhead. That hawk moved into a tree next to Avalon just as Michael moved into the art studio. Synchronicity and trust are what founded the project.

Juan and Drew were panted in front of Mathew Sheppard,  Drews mom entered the studio and asked why he had chosen to paint Drew in front of Mathew. He explained it was because of the composition. She told him a story, When Drew was younger he and his mom met Mathews mother. Drew was so impressed with ho open Mathews mom was about her son being gay that he decided it was time for him to come out to his mom.

Patience Carter was placed next to authors like Billy Manes. Patience Carter read a beautiful poem from her hospital bed about survivors guilt.  A heart with Jason Josaphat was right above her. Jason is the one who jumped in front of her, not even knowing her and took the bullets that took his life, saving her.

Months had gone by where they struggled to find a place for the mural but in that time Michaael had not picked up a brush. They were so lost in the planning that the creation had been pushed aside. Chimene told Michael, ‘Just start painting.’ He brought marine grade panels and started to piece together the mural in the studio. Rather than finding the wall and fitting the mural to the wall they started creating without concern about the final destination. Funding the project was a struggle, from cockroaches. leaky ceilings to termites to rats. Michael and Chimene funded what they could. The struggle has been a joy as well.

The mural is 36 feet by 12 feet. At the time of the interview Michael said there was one more month of work to be done on it. The plan for the big mural if the wall is available is that it would be 130 feet by 40 feet. Another connecting wall would be 100 feet by 24 feet. The large mural would have augmented reality elements that could be seen with cell phones. The first mural was done as a sketch so some figure sizes and proportions aren’t perfect. The final mural would be more refined. The possibilities are endless.