Originally appeared 12/14/05

Talk about the balloon bursting

     Part of the thing about doing what I do is you get hate mail.  It comes with the territory and by and large, most of it you can set aside.   It is not unusual to get emails or letters with people saying they don't like you, complete with the name calling and the four letter words.  Today was a little different.

     Lynn showed me a letter that was in the mail this morning, a prison letter no less.  Mind you, letters from prison aren't out of the ordinary for what we do either.  We don't get baskets full of them, but it isn't unusual to get one or two a month with the return address being a state correctional facility.  These letters tend to ramble more than others, are generally less grammatically correct, but by and large aren't all that different from the other letters or emails we receive.

     As she read the letter, at first I figured it was more of the same along the lines of a typical person who hates the president and also hates the country.  He was blathering on about how such topics and I was half listening to Lynn read this letter, when it took a decidedly darker turn.  The letter writer informed us that he is agnostic and he is glad that Bush is president, because he is killing Americans and since our letter writer hates America anyway, killing Americans is perfectly fine with him.   He ticks off the war, and Katrina and that George Bush is doing a far better job than I could have done with that machete.   I'll let that sink in for just a moment  before I introduce you to one of our loyal listeners, and yes, the thought of him listening to the show does make me sick.

 

Man wielding bat, machete goes on school rampage

William Michael Stankewicz is led into the district justice office in York, Pennsylvania, on Friday

 

February 2, 2001
Web posted at: 4:39 p.m. EST (2139 GMT)

YORK, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A man wielding a bat and a machete entered Winterstown Elementary School Friday morning and attacked three women and five children, police said.

None of the injuries was life threatening and a suspect was in custody.

The man followed a parent into the York County school around 11:30 a.m. and chased the principal down the hall, said Patrick McFadden, executive director of the York County Government Emergency Services Department.

The first call to 911 came in at 11:32 a.m. and, two minutes later, a woman called 911 and said she had barricaded herself and two children inside the principal's office to escape the attacker.

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The principal was the most seriously wounded in the attack, a Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said. Norina Bentzel, 41, was treated for extensive lacerations to her hand and a partially severed finger and was to be sent by helicopter Friday for to Union Memorial Hospital, in Baltimore, where she was to undergo plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Also wounded was Stacey Bailey, 33, a third-grade teacher, who said she had been hit in the left arm. She was expected to be discharged Friday afternoon.

And Linda Collier, 52, a kindergarten teacher, also suffered cuts to her hand. She was to be taken to surgery Friday afternoon.

Two of the women attacked by the man -- aged 52 and 33 -- suffered minor cuts to their arms.

The injuries suffered by the children were described as minor. Four of them, all five years old, were taken to York Hospital and released. A fifth child was taken by her mother to a doctor's office.

North Hopewell Township police questioned the suspect hoping to determine his motive, McFadden said.

School officials recessed classes and asked parents to come get their children early.

York is a town of 42,000 people about 25 miles south of Harrisburg.