Nate Gulliver might not deserve a vote, but he sure as heck deserves a voice. Gulliver, like Hadiya Pendleton and those murdered in several mass shootings in 2012, was also a victim of gun violence. But he's not one who President Obama is likely to use for cynical political purposes.
Last week, the nation witnessed Obama trot out survivors of gun violence at his State of the Union address. He shamelessly used them for political gain. It was so cheap; it was so tawdry. In short, it was vintage Obama.
Gulliver died in January 2005, one of several men killed by thugs that invaded a home for recovering drug addicts. And full disclosure: Gulliver was my first cousin.
Named after my late Uncle Nathaniel Gulliver, "Little Nate," as we called him, graduated college and had a good job. That was before the drugs got hold of him. That led to the loss of that job and his taking up residence in a home for recovering addicts. Other than the drugs, Gulliver had no criminal history, certainly not a violent one.
But one of his housemates had a history that caught up with him; Gulliver and several other residents of the group home got tragically, fatally dragged into that history.
Apparently the housemate with history hadn't quite kicked the drug habit. Several men showed up at the recovery house looking to recoup a drug debt. They forced all the recovery house residents into a living room while they made threats against the housemate with history. My cousin, when he heard how little money was owed, agreed to empty his bank account to pay the debt. ...
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