Honouring Helen Hill

No Media Kings - Honouring Helen Hill

Do you remember reading about the New Orleans mother who was killed in her home in the early morning of January 4th 2007? Her husband was also shot, but survived and her 2 year old child wasn't hurt at all. It was a very sad story. Not just because a young mother was gunned down, and a family will never be the same again without her. But also because this was just one of 7 murders in New Orleans within the first five days of the new year, 9 in less than 2 weeks. Of course the link between sky rocketing crime in a still hurting city that has not fully recovered after Hurricane Katrina is not a mere coincidence. More than 1,000 people marched on City Hall in New Orleans on January 11th, seeking an end to the violence. Are we surprised that Bush's Administration has left New Orleans unfixed and unfinished after Katrina? No, I'm not surprised by that at all.

I was surprised to see a tribute to the mother, Helen Hill, on one of my favorite author's websites (Jim Munroe at nomediakings.org). Aparently, he had known the couple and he posts a great remembrance of her on his site. Use the link above to read the full post on Jim's site. He also has a couple of home videos remembering Helen. Here is a little snippet from Jim Munroe's site:

On the day I met Helen and Paul, we had just made the long train trip from Montreal to Halifax and I was trying to decide between showering and eating before my book launch — I figured it might be hard to find vegan food in a new city and I didn’t have time for both. Paul, who’d picked us up, ushered us into a cosy kitchen to meet Helen. She offered me some stew, and regretfully — both because I was hungry and because I always felt bad rejecting people’s hospitality — I told her that I was hard to feed: I was vegan.

“We’re vegan too!” Helen exclaimed.

This was a lovely introduction to the delightful paradox of Helen and Paul. They looked and acted like folksy people from a simpler era, but were profoundly political. Not just in what they ate, but where they chose to live: they moved from their poor neighbourhood in Halifax where I met them to poorer neighbourhoods in New Orleans.
- from Jim Munroe's post - Honouring Helen Hill

Read NPR's story about Helen's Murder here.