Special 14th Remembrance of 9/11 Edition of the Lost Lake Tribune!
LOST LAKE TRIBUNE 9/12/2015
Wisconsin Church in Transition for First Time Since Attacks on 9/11
Bible Baptist Church of Neillsville, WI is looking for a pastor for the first time in 14 years. The last time that the small congregation needed a new human leader was before the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. Pastor Mark Fugate preached his last official messages on August 23 and September 6. The latter service included a cappella worship songs. The 8/23 service was the last time that Mrs. Sara Fugate played the piano for the church. Pastor and Mrs. Fugate have moved to Pekin, IL to serve in Faith Baptist Church and Faith Baptist Christian School. Mrs. Fugate teaches the K3 program at the Christian school.
On Sunday, August 30, Lost Lake Tribune Senior Editor Benjamin Fugate spoke in the Sunday School hour and morning service. For Sunday he spoke on the headship of Christ. This is certainly encouraging to a church which currently does not have a undershepherd but must still submit to the leadership of the Chief Shepherd. The morning message covered the first chapter of Joshua as Israel was in transition from the leadership of Moses to the guidance of Joshua. Ben Fugate will minister to the church again on September 20.
Fourteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, Pastor Fugate was in the first year of ministry at Neillsville. Ben Fugate was preparing for his weekly paper route. The other Fugates were preparing for home schooling and other Tuesday activities when the news broke that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The Fugates watched in horror as the second plane hit. The third plane hit the Pentagon as Pastor and Ben were on their way the the Bible Baptist Church building. The fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania while Ben sorted his papers. By the time Ben was done with his route, he was unsure of the United States and its status in the world. That Sunday, September 16, almost of the pastors in America changed their prepared messages, but Pastor Mark Fugate stayed with his original sermon.
The world changed that day, for more on the 9/11 tragedies, see the Editorial.
Migrant Crisis Continues in Europe and the Middle East
At Budapest’s Keleti Train Station last week, Mahmoud, a Syrian from Aleppo, looked around the underground concourse packed with new arrivals like himself. Judging from their accents and dialects, he reckoned that little more than 10 percent of them were Syrian. But he saw many more passing themselves off as Syrians.
Indeed, during his journey through Greece and the Balkans on his way to Hungary, “I found a bunch of Iraqis buying fake Syrian passports,” said Mahmoud, adding that now Syrians “are worried that their passports are being stolen.” Nearby, a countryman furtively showed his passport, tucked between the sole and padding of one of his sneakers.
As Europe moves to take in large numbers of refugees, particularly from Syria, some other migrants—often Iraqis, Libyans, Palestinians and Egyptians—are attempting to pass themselves off as Syrian, said aid workers, government officials and fellow migrants.
The trend is causing tensions between Syrians and migrants of other nationalities, as well as headaches for officials sifting through huge numbers of applicants to root out impostors.
The masquerade also risks undermining political support for the European Union’s open-door policy, with anti-immigrant parties in many countries ready to denounce the presence of economic migrants amid the wave of refugees. Of the 381,000 people who have landed in Italy and Greece this year—the two main entry points of the current wave of migrants—50 percent are Syrian, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Because of the war in their country, Syrians are considered prima facie refugees under international law, meaning they don’t need to present further evidence to qualify for protected status.
And in recent weeks, the deaths of 71 migrants—some of whom were Syrians—in a Hungarian truck found in Austria, and particularly images of the body of a 3-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a Turkish beach, have generated a wave of goodwill toward them. As a result, Syrians enjoy markedly better treatment than others along their journey.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Germany won’t absorb the thousands of economic migrants who are mixed among the 800,000 migrants expected to apply for asylum this year. “Those with no prospect of staying must leave our country,” she said.
Tragic Story in Suburbian Home is Hard to Explain
Night had fallen in the sprawling house on Channel Drive in the affluent west metro enclave of Greenwood, just a short walk from Lake Minnetonka.
Brian Scott Short, the 45-year-old homeowner, grabbed a shotgun and headed to the bedrooms of his 17-year-old son, Cole, and his 15- and 14-year-old daughters, Madison and Brooklyn.
He walked into the first bedroom, aimed the gun at the sleeping child and pulled the trigger, sources with direct knowledge of the investigation told the Star Tribune on Friday.
Short then did the same to his other two children. Startled by the noise, Short’s 48-year-old wife, Karen, grabbed a cellphone to call 911. But Brian tracked her down in another bedroom and shot her dead. She, like the children, was shot in the head.
Short then went into the home’s attached garage and turned the shotgun on himself.
Video (00:51): 2014 video of father killed in Greenwood murder-suicide
South Lake Minnetonka interim Police Chief Mike Siitari confirmed Friday at a news conference that a shotgun was found in the house, though he would not say where.
On Saturday morning, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office released confirmation of the family members’ names and causes of death. Each died of a shotgun wound to the head. Brian Short’s fatal injury is described as “self-inflicted.” The medical examiner said the time of death was listed as 12:07 p.m. Thursday, which is when the bodies were discovered.
On Friday, Siitari asked for the public’s patience as police investigate what is being described as a complex and “gruesome” case.
“We can’t release information in real time,” Siitari said, adding that he’s trying to balance public requests for information with the progress of the investigation. “We will do our best to work through this tragedy.”
He also declined to talk about a possible motive.
The bodies were found Thursday by officers carrying out a welfare check at the request of Short’s co-workers after he didn’t show at work for a couple of days. His children missed school Tuesday and Wednesday.
After entering the home, the officers first found that the family’s small dog was unharmed. As they moved from room to room, body to body, the extent of the carnage became clear.
‘A very tragic loss’
The house, built in 1998, was sold in September 2011 for $2 million to the Shorts, according to Hennepin County property records. The family moved to the 5,600-square-foot mansion, with an eight-car garage and a panoramic view of St. Albans Bay, from a 4,200-square-foot house in Lakeville.
Brian Short, a nurse, founded the website AllNurses.com, which provides information and resources for and about the nursing profession.
The AllNurses.com website posted a message about the family’s death that read in part: “No matter what the details are, the results are still the same … a very tragic loss for the extended families, friends, co-workers and this nursing community.” The company also wrote that it would continue Brian Short’s legacy of serving the nursing community despite the loss of a “stellar leader.” By Friday, several hundred people had left condolences on the website.
Several relatives of the Shorts, still in shock, declined to comment Friday.
News of the deaths hit hard at Minnetonka High School, where Cole, Madison and Brooklyn went to school. Classmates and teachers mourned the teens’ deaths, friends wore orange shirts to honor them, and grief counselors were on hand all day.
The tree-lined street where the family lived was quiet, with a memorial made up of flowers, a teddy bear and other mementos growing outside the Shorts’ house.
Greenwood, a community of about 700, is next to Excelsior, where Short had his business headquarters in a historic building.
The South Lake Minnetonka Police Department, which patrols four small cities, has only 14 full-time officers and last responded to a homicide in 2013, in Shorewood. The officers who responded to the scene were still shaken up, Siitari said, and the investigation is taxing the resources of the small department, which is being assisted by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office
What little he has been able to share with the public, Siitari said, is meant to inform and reassure the community that there are no known ongoing threats.
No clear motives
Public records show no bankruptcies or state tax liens against Brian Short or his company.
He was facing a federal lawsuit from a New Jersey-based company, although it is unclear whether it posed much of a legal or financial threat to his business. In the lawsuit, Achieve Test Prep alleged that AllNurses.com failed to delete anonymous defamatory comments from its website and was sending business to a competitor.
The suit was filed in New Jersey, but on Aug. 28, the judge ordered that the case be moved to Minnesota.
A couple of 17-year-old Cole’s friends told the Star Tribune this week that Cole had told them the family was planning to sell the house soon because it was too big for them. About three months ago, the family abruptly ended weekly cleaning services with Polina’s Cleaning Services. The family had paid for the service for about seven months. “It was really strange; out of nowhere they said they were stopping,” said company representative Roman Peysakhovich. When he asked Karen Short why, she gave no reason, he said. “They seemed like a great family,” he said. “Everything was perfect.”
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| The Short family on vacation |
Editorial.
As mentioned in the top
story, it has been fourteen years since Islamic Terrorists attacked U.S. soil
on 9/11/2001. Although I am looking in hindsight, I truly believe that the
United States wrongly responded to the threat of Muslim militants. First, we wrongly
identified Afghanistan as an enemy that was harboring Osama Bin Laden, when Pakistan was actually the nation that was
protecting the Al Qaeda leader. For years we sought for Bin Laden in the wrong
places and then President Obama claims that Osama was caught and killed on May
2. 2011. Although I would love to praise President Obama for the capture of the
terrorist leader, I am still very sketchy on the details given because there
were no pictures ever shared to prove that what had caught the man for which we
were searching. But that discussion is for another time.
Today's discussion is
about the lousy response by Presidents Bush and Obama to the threats of
terrorism. Although President Bush was successful in attacking Afghanistan, the
threat of terrorism continues because those who hate America are not afraid of
our response. In World War II, The USA obliterated Germany and Japan. The bombs
(not all atomic) dropped on the Axis powers killed
millions on Germans, Japanese, refugees, and others. Why did our
great nation do such a thing? Because they knew the truth about war. War is a
terrible fact of life. When a nation chooses to attack another for no good
reason, that nation should expect a response that will attempt to crush the
land that started the war. Wars like the Anglo-Zanzibar war ended very quickly
because the threatened nation responded with great force.
If Afghanistan,
and/or Iraq, and/or Pakistan were the enemies of the USA, then those nations
should have wiped off the map just like Japan and Germany were in World War II! War is not for the timid. It is not for the nations who have no plans or resources Our Lord Jesus Christ
said "Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able
with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty
thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an
ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace." Luke 14:31-32. Moses and
Joshua obliterated their enemies to the point of scaring the city of Jericho
into closing their gates and failing to send soldiers to meet the children of
Israel. Every nation that goes into war should either go into war to completely embarrass the enemy or should avoid the war and seek peace immediately. War does not half-measures. This war policy will actually give the world more peace and stability.
If Afghanistan and/or Iraq, and/or Pakistan were not our enemies, then these nations should have been told to rid their lands of terrorists as soon as possible. The USA should have shored up its borders and coasts to protect itself from the threat of outside terrorists.
The half-measures of President Bush and the appeasing measures of President Obama were not successful. ISIS and the Quds are stronger than ever and are wreaking havoc on the Middle East and Europe. Soon, the Muslim Crusades of the 7th and 8th Centuries will look like a picnic. The crossing of the Danube in the mid-1500s will seem like children playing in the street! Thousands of ISIS soldiers and sympathizers are making up sob stories and illegally crossing national borders in the EU. Even President Obama is willing to allow 50,000 Syrians into the States, no questions asked.
Are we out of our minds? No one should be crossing the US border these days without proper paperwork. Every nation and/or group that desires to attack the US should know that they will face great destruction if they are unsuccessful. We should not be signing treaties with any nation unless that treaty includes release of all prisoners of war and complete submission to the US!
I am no longer pro-American, but if America wants to stand strong, they will follow these prescriptions and others that are similar.
This editorial is the opinion of Senior Editor Benjamin Fugate and not necessarily the opinions of his church, his friends, or his employer.
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