Negative 2017 News Stories

I experienced the following coincidences in 2017: 1. The mayor of Hickory, North Carolina, committed suicide on May 11, 2017. Hickory is my hometown. 2. Otto F. Warmbier, an UVA McIntire School of Commerce student and former North Korea prisoner, died on June 19, 2017. I am a graduate of the UVA McIntire School of Commerce. 3. Heather D. Heyer, a bankruptcy paralegal, was killed on August 12, 2017, during the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. I was once a bankruptcy paralegal, and I once lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, for four years while in college at UVA, including two summers there. 4. A child was killed on August 20, 2017, during a domestic-violence incident in the Baity Hill family housing community at UNC. The Baity Hill family housing community was built after my graduation from UNC law school around the house (Ms. Baity’s old house) where I once lived for two years while in law school. 5. A fatal helicopter crash occurred in Medford, Burlington County, New Jersey, on September 8, 2017. One of the victims in that crash was Troy Gentry, a country musician who lived in the Nashville area (Franklin, Tennessee). A couple of my apartment mates while at UVA once lived in Burlington County (Medford Lakes). I have visited both Franklin and Burlington County. The fatal Duke Life Flight helicopter crash in Perquimans County, North Carolina, also occurred on September 8, 2017. I once was a patient at Duke University Hospital. 6. Brock Long, a native of Catawba County, North Carolina, was nominated and confirmed to be FEMA Administrator in 2017. He led the FEMA response to the hurricanes in 2017. I am also a native of Catawba County, and I once played Brock Long in tennis when we were teenagers. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria occurred in August 2017 and September 2017, and September 2017 was the busiest month of hurricane activity on record.