EVP Stands for End Violence Permanently

      I was going to write a snarky, light-hearted post today about the Pope's address to Congress and him blowing off Congressional leaders to eat with the homeless, instead. But then I heard about what happened to Mark and Debby Constantino and decided this was more important.
     I never divulge what TV programs I watch because, why should I? But one of my favorite shows ever is Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel. Roughly once or twice a year, host Zak Bagans would invite them on the show as guest investigators because the Constantinos were excellent EVP specialists. (For those of you who don't know what an EVP is, it stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena, or voices captured on digital audio that cannot be heard by the naked ear).
     I watch such shows because as keen an interest as I have in politics and baseball, lately that's been paling in comparison to my fascination with the paranormal. Not only have I had a couple of possible paranormal experiences myself, but I believe I'd picked up several EVPs of my own in our apartment over the years. And since I have a special interest in EVPs, I would enjoy the episodes that featured the Constantinos.
     Two days ago in Reno, NV, Mark took his estranged wife Debby hostage and eventually shot her dead before turning the gun on himself. It was eerily reminiscent of those two cosplayers who'd shot two cops and a civilian dead in Vegas June of last year. You may remember them. They were so super, radically, ultra right wing, they were actually kicked off the Bundy ranch.

     Mark and Debby Constantino with former Ghost Adventures crewmember Nick Grof.

     According to one source I'd read, just six weeks before the murder/suicide, Constantino and his daughter Raquel (from a previous marriage), ganged up on Debby and Mark nearly choked her to death. She'd gotten a protective order against Mark but obviously he did not honor it. On Debby's Twitter account just weeks before her death, she was looking forward to "flying solo".

     If you've ever seen Ghost Adventures, especially the episodes featuring the Constantinos, one would never think anything was amiss. Debby would be almost constantly hanging off her husband and he seemed to love her just as much. This is why the apparent murder/suicide was so shocking because, to those of us not in the loop, it came completely out of the blue. It was a carefully constructed public persona with ratings and career opportunities in mind. And far from this incident being preceded by anything so salacious as a demonic possession that suddenly turned Mark into a bad guy, this pattern of spousal abuse was longstanding. There is no supernatural causation here.

     As with the Las Vegas police massacre over a year ago, this touches on a whole raft of issues that we ought to be more substantially addressing. We ought to be addressing the epidemic of gun violence in this country and the stricter gun control laws that have been proven time and again to mitigate gun-related homicides. We ought to also be more substantially addressing domestic violence against women and how shelters, funding allocations and counseling should be made more readily available.

     HMOs should also better subsidize mental health care instead of offering a pitiful 25% coverage rate. And, however redundant this may prove to be, it never hurts to spread the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).