Several Seattle bar owners who received anonymous letters threatening to poison customers with highly toxic ricin called the matter creepy but doubted it would hurt business.
....
The letters, received by many of the bar owners on Tuesday, claimed, "I have in my possession approximately 67 grams of ricin with which I will indiscriminately target at least five of your clients."
Ricin, a chemical found in castor beans, can be deadly if purified and ingested or inhaled.
Here's the letter.
Let us pray that this is only a threat and that there be no attempt to carry it out. Law enforcement authorities are taking the threat seriously, and the FBI is involved, too.
Thanks to Dennis.
Ugh! This is creepy. And even if it is an idle threat, nothing like this should ever be taken lightly. Glad the authorities are on top of this.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of fear in the GLBT community that the higher profile of gay marriage and gay rights is bringing all the loonies out of the woodwork.
ReplyDeleteIT
Chere Mimi
ReplyDeleteOne of the sickest details of all of this is that embedded in the letter (which I do not need to read) are phrases directly out of a poem by Mark Doty.
Mark, IMHO is possibly one of, if not the greatest American poet alive today, and is a partnered gay man.
Mark and Paul are both writers and a wonderful couple.
Mark's memoir' Heaven's Coast is possibly the most powerful piece of writing to come out of the first chapters of the AIDS hollocaust, and the poem in question was written during that period and is a reflection on mortality.
Mark knows of this sick abuse of his art as is reflected in his most current blog post. His anguish is possibly only exceeded by the fear our brothers and sisters in Seattle must be experiencing.
Time for prayerful solidarity folks. Lord have mercy.
hugs
David@Montreal
This is truly sick and disgusting.
ReplyDeleteCher David, the article mentions Mark Doty's poem and quotes him:
"It's just deeply repellent," he said. He wrote the poem in 1994 as a meditation on the nature of the self and mortality after his partner died of AIDS.
"It was a poem that would have helped to address the suffering of gay men, and here it's being used to instill fear," he said.
Very, very creepy... and I can imagine how this must be affecting people in Seattle, Gay and Straight.
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ!
ReplyDeleteAnd I mean that in the non-profane sense.
Ricin is no toy.
ReplyDeleteTim, I say "Jesus!" as an exclamation, too, but it's really a prayer.