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The Untold Story of Elaine Herzberg

It’s been almost two months since Elaine Herzberg died. I didn’t know her, but I think about her often.

Elaine was struck and killed by an autonomous Uber near Tempe Town Lake in March. According to her Facebook page, she graduated from Apache Junction High School and lived in Mesa. She liked Science TV and professional wrestling, especially the homegrown stars of the WWE, the Bella Twins. She didn’t have many “friends,” by Facebook standards, but she tried to stay positive and hold herself accountable. It’s clear she was self-aware.

It took me just a couple minutes to learn all of that about Elaine.

Phoenix New Times and the Arizona Republic, who have reported very little about the nearly 50 years of life Elaine Herzberg lived, must lack the resources that I have. Like, the internet. All they apparently know about her—besides her death and purported homelessness—is that Elaine had a criminal record and a period of incarceration related to drug charges.

That’s it. There’s not a single mention that Elaine was a proud Prospector, Class of ’85, or that her Facebook page hinted at a wickedly dark sense of humor. And in the two months following the fatal accident, the Republic has published three follow-up storiesNew Times has published nine, and none of them tells us anything more about Elaine Herzberg.

Would we know more about Elaine if she hadn’t been incarcerated? Would New Times or the Republic or anyone in the mainstream media have written more about her if she lived in an affluent neighborhood or come from a “good family” or worked in a position of quasi-authority? How much more would Elaine Herzberg had to have done during her life to overcome a drug conviction, to be humanized in death as the victim of a fatal accident?

The lives of the formerly incarcerated are the stories the media won’t tell, and Elaine’s is just the latest example of their complicity in stigmatizing people who are system-involved long after they’ve done their time. If journalists won’t tell their stories, it’s up to the rest of us to do the best that we can.

To truly memorialize Elaine Herzberg, I’m asking that, if you knew Elaine, leave a comment and help tell her story. Because it appears no one in the mainstream media will.

Joe Watson, AFSC-AZ Research & Social Media Consultant

6 replies »

  1. Unfortunately I can’t help with giving you more information about Elaine Herzberg. I just want to thank you for shining a light to this side of the story. It appalled me to read the news stories, all of them focusing on the tech aspects.

    • I Googled Ms. Herzberg and found the same information that you did. I saw pictures of mugshots, but I also saw pictures of her with a smile on her face and one picture that showed her at a gym with a towel wrapped around her neck. In this picture she had a big smile on her face. I hate that this poor woman will be memorialized only for being killed by a “driverless” Uber and not because she fought an ongoing battle and was well on her way to being the victor. I hope and pray that this poor lady is now at peace and is enjoying a new life and a new body free of drugs and addiction, a life free of ridicule, hunger and pain. RIP Elaine.

  2. I can not offer information from what was written or not written about her. I thank you for bringing forth a light to shine on for Elaine Herzberg. From her picture I can sense she is sweet and unpretenious a simple sentient being too different from this diabolical and sinister reality. She is a hero in my book, the unknown soldier.

  3. Hi, my name is Christine Wood. I am Elaine Herzbergs daughter. I know bad things have been said about me right along with my mother, but that is another story for another time. You asked for information about Mrs. Herzberg, a.k.a. my mom so here is some information I know she would want everyone to know. She was the proud grandmother of 7 now almost 8 grandchildren, she lived life one day at a time, she would give you the shirt off her back no questions asked, her and I may not have always had the best mother daughter relationship, but we were always there for each other no matter what and she loved her kids, grandkids and family with all her heart. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about her or about what her and I would be doing right now of she were still alive. My mother Elaine Herzberg is loved and missed by everyone that knew her. R.I.P. mom until I see you again I love and miss you.

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