Stacy Horn

Woohoo!! For those who don’t follow my blog regularly, every summer the Citywide Aquatics department of NYC Parks & Recreation sponsors a lap swim contest. People who swim 25 miles get a tshirt proclaiming their accomplishment. There’s also a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophy for the man and the woman who swim the most miles in their division at their pool in the first five weeks.

I came in 2nd place in my division (Night Owl swimmers, women, at the Tony Dapolito pool). That’s me draped in my tshirt and holding my trophy.

There’s a party at the end of the year when the tshirts and trophies are given out, with music and food and a relay race. (More pictures below.)

My pool, Tony Dapolito, apparently has a tradition of always coming in last. Last year was my first year in this program, and I swam in the race that summer, doing my part to keep up the tradition. But this year it was up to Adolfo, Diana, Anna and Daniel.

This is Anna Jardine, the 1st place winner at my pool, waiting to swim her leg in the relay race. Anna also came in 1st place citywide. She swam more miles than any woman in the entire city (115.8!! I know, insane, right?). And please look at how freaking long this pool is! (Olympic-size.) I remember when I raced last year, halfway through the race I looked up to see how I was doing and I couldn’t believe how much longer I had to go.

This is Anna with her trophy, a beautiful art deco-like work of art.

Finally, I made a short movie of part of the race. I didn’t get Adolfo’s leg (I’m sorry!) but I got a little of Diana’s, Anna’s and Daniel’s.

Thank you so much NYC Parks and Recreation Citywide Aquatics! This is a fabulous, wonderful program. It’s fun! It’s healthy! I can’t tell you how grateful I am.

I only just recently heard about Medium, a blog platform and now investigative journalism site. My friend Steven Levy had written us all to say he was moving there to become the editor-in-chief of a new tech hub that he will establish, and to continue to write about science and technology. Because of that I started paying attention to Medium. Thank you, Steven! Everything I’ve read on that site has been seriously excellent. This article about scientists convicted of manslaughter after an earthquake is next on my to-read list there. If you want to start exploring Medium you might as well start there. I’m that confident it’s going to be great.

Medium and the whole new news-gathering world they are creating contributed to an idea of mine that’s been brewing for a while. It all came together for me last weekend at the We Will Not Go Back March on Staten Island. In the days leading up to the march I’d been going over some of the research I’ve been conducting at the Municipal Archives, material that had a direct bearing on the march. I was standing there listening to the speakers, and they started naming names of victims like Eric Garner and Michael Brown, going back to Eleanor Bumpers. In my head I picked up where they left off and I continued naming names going further and further back. That’s when I got an idea for a new history/investigative journalism project of my own. More to come!

Another shot from the march. These are people watching from a deli across the street.

But that will have to wait until tomorrow. I need to get ready for the library. I’m spending the day at the Manuscripts and Archives division at the New York Public Library, my favorite kind of day as readers of this blog know. Hopefully there will be an interesting post about what I find!

This is a picture of press photographers from the We Will Not Go Back march on Staten Island last Saturday.

I went out to Staten Island this afternoon to attend the We Will Not Go Back March, organized by the National Action Network. The march was against police brutality and in support of the family of Eric Garner, who died last month after being placed in a chokehold by the officer arresting him.

I probably would have attended anyway, but as it happens, in the course of my research at the Municipal Archives I came across a series of police memos about the deaths of young black men in the 1930’s. The cases they described read as if they happened today. The response from the police commissioner at the time was especially heart-breaking. He refused to do a single thing, not one single thing, to address the problem. So when I saw a post about the rally I headed to the ferry.

I got pictures of the more well-known speakers, but my favorites were of the people in the crowd.

Thousands of people were there, but I don’t like being penned in (how the NYPD handles crowds) so I stayed on the outskirts. It allowed me to get better shots though, I think.

I took this shot because of the Emmett Till/Trayvon Martin tshirt. The woman Emmett Till whistled at is still alive, by the way. I would like to interview her before she dies. She has never expressed remorse.

A lot of men wore suits to the protest, I noticed. There was something very touching about that.

Old school/new school.

I got to the rally late, and missed some of the speakers. But I heard the mother of Amadou Diallo, who talked about the fears of mothers of sons. I’ve never had children but I looked at the faces of the young men around me. Who couldn’t understand the fear and heartbreak she described??

I confess I had to google the people named in the signs. Harry T. Moore was the founder of the first NAACP branch in Brevard County, Florida. He and his wife were murdered by the Klu Klux Klan on Christmas in 1951. If there is a God, I wish I could hear what his son has (or had) to say to the murderers. “Let me get this straight. You thought murdering innocent people on my symbolic birthday …”

I saved this picture for last because this speaker got to me the most. I left my bag at home, so I didn’t have anything to write down his name. I’ll update this post when I get it. He’s retired NYPD, and he made a very moving demand.

He explained how the NYPD, when they arrest someone for a crime, will also arrest everyone with the guy for “acting in concert.” He then said that all the cops who stood by as Eric Garner gasped over and over, “I can’t breath, I can’t breath, I can’t breath,” should also be arrested, according to standard practice, for acting in concert.

While I was listening to him speak I kept thinking, “This guy has witnessed some very bad things.”

It doesn’t really matter if I do. I came in 2nd place at my pool, in the women’s Night Owl Division (with 39 miles)! Woohoo!! They took pictures of the winners on Tuesday but I wasn’t there, I took the night off. Damnit! But they didn’t tell anyone they were coming.

The party is next Wednesday, when I will pick up my tshirt and trophy. I’ll be back with lots of pictures. But even though that part of the contest is over, we’re still tallying miles and right now I have just under 49 miles. It would be nice to hit a nice round number like 50 and walk in all, “Fucking fifty, bitches!”

The other day, while walking along the High Line, I saw this sign in the window on the right. The truth is out there. (That show was fun. X-Files, for the insanely young among you.)