Observing the Utah Legislature can feel like you’re standing in one big locker room with a bunch of boys snapping towels at each other’s behinds.

Case in point: Check out Pleasant Grove Republican Rep. Craig Frank’s blog under a February 4 post titled “Who’s Packin’ on the Hill?” (A tip of the hat to LaVarr Webb and his Utah Policy Daily subscription newsletter for sending me to this site.)

What’s wrong with this picture(s)?

For one thing, the legislators are not identified. But then, the anonymity is part of the little-boy charm of conceal and carry. You don’t want anyone to actually KNOW you have a gun in your waistband. That would spoil the element of surprise. You remember the game of cops and robbers, dontcha? You wouldn’t want the bad guys (Democrats?) to find you out.

What’s worse is the element of poor taste and total insensitivity while this city, this state, is still reeling from the massacre three days ago at Trolley Square. Five innocent people shot dead by a lone teen gunman. Four remain hospitalized with serious to critical injuries. Survivors of the dead are holding press conferences to describe their grief and to sketch the lives of their loved ones to the public. They stand before the cameras, run their hands through their hair, and sob.

Meanwhile, the dead gunman’s family tries to explain to the world how being Bosnian and Muslim had nothing to do with Sulejman Talovic’s rampage, and to please refrain from acting out survivors’ rage against their immigrant community in Salt Lake City.

But ha-ha-ha, we’ve got our locker room lawmakers yucking it up with their on-line poster for packin’ heat.

Check out the posted comments, too, where our gun-toting pols are lauded as heroes and brand names of handguns are bandied about and compared like so many flavors of beer (or perhaps more befitting of our Legislature — ice cream.)

These people are pathetic.

I’m not writing this to engage in another fruitless debate with gun freaks about their Second Amendment rights. And I am certainly not interested at this moment in dissecting whether more people should or should not be carrying weapons as a result of this tragedy. That discussion has already begun for many. But for me, it’s far too soon to get my arms around those topics. I remain numb, sick in the gut over this whole horrid event.

And to anyone who wants to argue that Frank and his friends can’t be criticized because he posted the item a full week before the shootings occurred, OK. I’ll give him that. He couldn’t have known, of course. But then ask yourself this: Wouldn’t a person with a half-ounce of sense and a smidgen of decorum remove the item from his blog in the wake of Trolley Square?

It’s worth asking. It’s also worth wondering why we keep electing to the Legislature a bunch of latent adolescents who would rather measure each others’ guns than effect positive change in a deeply troubled society.

For just a moment, I fought a flush of feeling that I was being ghoulish. Was I some kind of bottom feeder, wanting to check in at Trolley Square, site of the massacre just 36 hours earlier that ended with the random killings of five and the death of the gunman?

It may be my background covering news for nearly three decades. You don’t let yourself get squeamish and self-conscious in these situations, and it worked that way today, too. I pulled the car over at Trolley Square early this morning, just as the sun was cresting the Wasatch Mountains.

And after the gloom that settled over this city in the tragedy’s aftermath, the sun and brilliant blue skies above us are much-welcomed gifts.

The scene was of a business, a city landmark, waiting to get back to normal. Mall security guards were removing the yellow police tape surrounding the 10 square blocks of the structure. Shop and restaurant owners were being interviewed by radio reporters about when they plan to reopen. A few gawkers like myself were shuffling along the sidewalks, pointing, stretching their necks for a better view.

Late yesterday, some of the broken glass and splintered wood had been replaced. But sheaths of paper and plywood planks still cover display windows of Cabin Fever and Pottery Barn Kids.

We know about random acts of violence and of what I frankly call the “shit happens” school of tragedy. News stories and editorials keep asking why here, why us, why them? Thinking and talking it all through like that — asking the rhetorical questions — is a salve for the immediate pain and mystery of it all, but it’s not terribly productive or meaningful in the long run.

There’s just no explanation, really.

One woman who clearly understands that is Marian Ingham, a 66-year-old woman who was interviewed by TV and print reporters last night. She had watched a movie at the mall’s Regency Theaters and escaped the gunfire by running out the building’s southwest exit. Yesterday she returned to the scene, where people are leaving flowers and notes at a makeshift shrine to the victims. Marian was handing out little cards containing inspirational thoughts to passersby.

No one reported the backstory of her efforts. Marian lost her husband several years ago. He was killed after crashing his car into a utility pole on Foothill Drive in Salt Lake City. Authorities determined he had suffered a heart attack seconds before, causing him to lose control of the car.

While Marian’s experience hardly mirrors the shooting rampage at Trolley Square, she surely knows something about the random nature of this universe. One day you have a loved one sitting across the table from you, sipping coffee. The next day, you don’t.

I plan on meeting my hubby for lunch at Desert Edge Brewery sometime this week. We want to keep the sun shining on this place as long as possible.

And finally, Happy Valentine’s Day. Wrap your arms around someone you love and be grateful for another day together.

Less than 30 minutes ago, I attended a press conference where the Salt Lake City Police Department released basic details about last night’s shooting rampage at the Trolley Square shopping mall, which ended in the killing of five mall patrons and the gunman.

The dead included two men and three women.

The shooter was Sulejmen Talovic, an 18-year-old male from Salt Lake City. Police released little more than that. Chief Chris Burbank said Talovic lives with his mother. They are still investigating his motives, his work and or educational background, and seeking information about his friends and associations. Burbank said they have no knowledge of his mental state last night or leading up to the shootings.

Police believe at this point that Talovic acted alone and had no assistance in planning the crime.

The dead are identified as:

Jeffery Walker, 52.
Vanessa Quinn, 29.
Kirsten Hinckley, 15.
Teresa Ellis, 29.
Brad Frantz, 24.

The hospitalized injured are:
Carolyn Tufts, 44.
Shawn Munns, 34.
Stacy Hansen, 53.
Jeffery Allen Walker, 16.

At this writing, we know nothing more about their backgrounds, hometowns or other personal information.

Burbank told reporters the shooter had a “minor” juvenile criminal record with four non-violent infractions. He would not discuss details, citing the confidentiality of juvenile criminal information.

Talovic parked his car in the mall’s west parking terrace, and just before entering the west door of Trolley, shot two people. He entered the building, then shot a woman. He walked eastward through the lower level of the mall, and shot five people at Cabin Fever card and gift shop. Burbank said Talovic “encountered two others before he was contained” by four Salt Lake police officers and one off-duty Ogden police officer.

The Ogden officer was able to keep Talovic at bay until other police arrived, and is being hailed as the hero of the night. His name is not yet being released. All the officers — including the Ogden man — are on paid administrative leave during the investigation.

“There is no question that [the Ogden officer’s] quick actions saved the lives of numerous people,” Burbank told reporters gathered at the west entrance of the Salt Lake City and County Building. The officer, he said, engaged a suspect who was well-armed. He was wearing no uniform and had none of the customary back-up of his partner or SWAT team.

Police said Talovic carried a backpack into the mall and had two weapons — a .38-caliber handgun and a shotgun. Burbank could not describe the shotgun. Talovic also had several rounds of live ammunition in the backpack and in a bandelier around his torso.

ScanlanKemperBard Companies, owner of Trolley Square, has established a fund for the victims and their families through Wells Fargo Bank. Contributions can be made to the “Trolley Square Victims’ Fund” at any bank branch. Tom Bard, SKB executive vice president, told me his firm has made a “sizable contribution” to the fund, but would not elaborate on the amount.

Random thoughts:

Mayor Rocky Anderson, who conducted the press conference, was thoughtful, calm, and reassuring — just what we need and expect from the leader of our city today. “This is as tough as it gets for any community,” a somber Anderson began. He assured everyone, which was echoed by Burbank in his remarks, that statistically Salt Lake is a very safe place. “This was an isolated incident,” Anderson said, adding that crime statistics across the board have been dropping in Salt Lake for 14 straight years.

“This kind of thing is really unheard of here,” said Burbank. “I am just amazed standing here. Exactly what caused this? What drove a young man to do this?”

While we all await that answer, which may never fully come, my current thought is somewhat opposed to the mayor and police chief’s disbelief. The fact is, we can never view this city as so fundamentally different than everywhere else. This city is growing and changing–and we have invited that upward evolution every step of the way, for goodness sake. It’s perfectly fine and normal in the aftermath of this numbing tragedy to act surprised, shocked, even incredulous at this unspeakable and random act of violence.

But do let’s give up on the notion that our bedrock Utah values somehow save us or cocoon us from crimes and violence shared by the rest of our society. We are no better or worse than anyone else who lives and loves their family and friends — and that means in Los Angeles, Detroit, Miami, or Newark.

Instead of looking back on Salt Lake’s good old, safe old days, let’s accept we no longer live in a bubble. (If we ever did at all!!) And let’s start working, as soon as tomorrow I hope, on getting to know and understand the people in our midst. The people who live and work near us, the children packed into the huge warehouses we call schools. Because as this city continues its well-loved march toward expansion, the strains and stresses of urban growth will build right along with it.

We will never be safe and sound and fully protected.

OK, OK, I haven’t gone yet.

One more thought, before I hop on the Collins high-speed quad.

This comes from faithful blog reader and longtime “Mullenista” Frank Musgrave — in honor, I must think, of Abraham Lincoln’s actual birthday:

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad,
I feel bad. And that’s my religion.
— Abraham Lincoln

Depending on whom you believe, the Wasatch Mountains got anywhere from five inches to 17 inches new snow in the past 24 hours.

Believe me, I checked. Newspaper, TV weather, web sites for both Alta (is there anywhere else) and our favorite pimp for the ski industry, Ski Utah.

In this case, I’m no stickler for accuracy or even THE TRUTH. I trust my own eyes. And I walked out to the driveway early this a.m., cast a glance to the east and saw a perfect blanket of white.

I am so outta here.

I’m going skiing for the first time in a month.

I’ll take my camera.

Don’t you wish you were me?

Don’t go changin’!

xoxo,
Mayor of Mullentown

Working my way through the Sunday paper on a rainy morning, I was deeply moved by several personal stories of Utah parents and children living with autism. A national story last week revealed Utah’s rate of kids with various types of autism to be 20 times higher than in the mid-1980s. That is due partly to progress in diagnosing the disorder, but no one can quite explain why the numbers keep climbing.

Even with one child pretty well launched and the other getting closer, I have moments when gratitude for their physical and mental health just cascade over me. Since no research has adequately determined what, exactly, causes autism I found myself wondering as I read The Salt Lake Tribune stories: Why not me, and why not our family? Were my pregnancies somehow better and stronger than so many other women’s? I mean there were a few rare occasions when I sipped a half-glass of wine. I took a daily run right up to the seventh month of both pregnancies–until my bulging belly and aching hip and pelvic joints all but screamed at me to stop. Was any of that healthy? Or did my children and I simply escape some bad cosmic joke?

Nothing about parenting is easy, but you don’t even stop to think about that when trying to navigate through its daily haze. One day you are not a parent. The next day, guess what? You have a kid! Parenting is at once fascinating and joyous; it’s also scary as hell. And it never seems to be done. Two nights ago, just one mile from our home, a whole family was all but wiped out when an apparently drunk 17-year-old boy slammed his Jeep Cherokee into their VW Jetta. The mother, five months pregnant, was killed. So were two of her children, 11 and nine. The father was driving and escaped with a broken rib. Another boy, age 6, is fighting for his life today.

What were the last words or feelings that mother shared with her little family, I wonder. No doubt she was simply being a parent in the hours leading up to her last second on earth. Perhaps she threw a load of wash into the machine, helped the youngest one tie his shoes, braided her little girl’s hair. Just mom stuff — the duties that come with the job and increase as you go along. Nothing big, nothing earth-shattering. It’s all part of the territory of parenting, and you do it with little regard that suddenly, it might end later that night when some stupid, careless kid careens into the family sedan.

It’s odd I would even think of the mundane activities of parenthood, given the profound tragedy of this event and how it will unfold over the next few days, months, years.

It’s unbearably sad.

In reporter Lisa Rosetta’s Trib story about a Provo couple and their 12-year-old son with autism, the father, Joe Parry, said something quite profound. It’s profound in its relation to rearing and loving a child with a disability, but it’s applicable to any parent really, and pretty well describes what should be our main job description. Joe Parry has discovered something about the role of parent, and it certainly isn’t about molding or bending a child to some unrealistic state of perfection.

Joe Parry said he finally had to step back and let his son Will, just be Will.

He said: “I’ve got a pretty amazing person here who is very much alive — the greatest lesson I’ve ever learned.”

Call it a liberal woman thing, but I’m both mystified and wildly amused by recent comments in Salt Lake City sports columns about former Utah Jazz center John Amaechi’s revelation that he is gay.

As revealed in his forthcoming tell-all memoir, Man in the Middle, Amaechi lived a safely closeted life in SLC’s gay community (which he calls the “hippest and gayest” east of San Francisco. Hoo-ah!) during his two-year tenure with the Jazz.

I think this is fascinating. I think the news is groundbreaking. Sure, other professional athletes have come out in the past three or so decades, but only a handful. Breaking barriers in pro sports such as going public with homosexuality is, even in 2007, a big deal. And Amaechi is the first NBA player to do so. That’s quite amazing. And brave.

But I am showing how at least where sports stories are concerned, women are from Venus and men are from Mars. I believe most women who saw this story considered it multi-layered. They probably felt some empathy for Amaechi. Bad enough that he was an awful player, but then he had to conceal his true self from everyone around him, too. Women who appreciate sports and good sports writing (put me, a former Tribune sports editor, in that camp) would want to know more.

With the exception of Phil Miller, lead NBA writer for The Salt Lake Tribune who has covered the Amaechi story fully and professionally for the last two days, local columnists’ treatments of the topic have been unreal.

Check here, here, and here for how three male sports columnists scramble to distance themselves from a topic that still sends shivers down most straight men’s spines.

How do I know that? It’s the universal distancing factor they all fall back on. It’s the fact that these writers can’t ignore an important, even titilating story, but they haven’t figured out how to seriously address it.

They don’t want to come off as — god forbid — homophobic. Hey, no worries there! These guys haven’t run their own mental traps enough to even be accused of homophobia. They aren’t even there yet. It’s easier not to face the issue of gay athletes and what it means in the world of pricey, all-encompassing, macho-drenched professional sports.

So what we get instead from columnists Monson, Luhm, and Rock is this theme of apathy. It’s “who cares if he’s gay,” “this is news?” and “why are we even writing about this?”

But then each spins out 20-plus column inches about why he is writing about this.

Or, in Luhm’s case, a whole treatise on how Amaechi completely sucked while playing for Coach Jerry Sloan and drew too fat a paycheck from Jazz owner Larry H. Miller.

What do we make of that argument? That being the untalented slacker he was, it’s no surprise that Amaechi is gay?

It’s like the old argument about not seeing black when dealing with African-Americans. “I’m color-blind when it comes to race,” white people will say in their efforts at tolerance and inclusion.

But ask a black person if he or she wants to be invisible.

And ask a gay man who might like to be open while playing in the NBA how he wants to be perceived?

Not, I’ll bet, as someone to be ignored, brushed off and discounted with an eye-roll and a “who gives a rat’s ass?”

Anyway, here is a more thorough round-up of what NBA players think of Amaechi’s news. I love the quote from former Utah Ute Mike Doleac, always a smart guy far beyond his ability on the basketball court.

No member of Utah’s GOP congressional delegation sniffs more furiously after poll results than Sen. Orrin Hatch. Take his performance yesterday on the floor of the U.S. Senate. During debate over assorted resolutions regarding President George W. Bush’s intended increase of 21,500 troops for Iraq, Hatch tiptoed right up to the edge of the cliff in a manner that The Salt Lake Tribune characterized as his “harshest assessment of the situation in Iraq.”

Said Utah’s senior senator: “I am supporting a strategy for success. So far, President Bush — who has a lot to answer for the mistakes that have been made — is offering the only way to try to leave Iraq in better shape than it is now.”

Ah, backbone.

Moments earlier, Hatch had described Bush’s early war strategy as a “profound mistake.” This would be the notion — repeated early and often by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — that our mission in Iraq would be short, swift and targeted with precision. This would be the notion that U.S. forces would march in, topple Saddam and cheer our president as he stood on an aircraft carrier and shouted “Mission Accomplished.”

This would be four years ago.

There is a reasonable explanation for Hatch’s sudden swagger in dissing that big misguided president in front of all his Senate colleagues.

It’s called steadily shifting public opinion.

“I’m sure Orrin’s own polls within his organization are showing him how deeply unpopular the war has become. Even in Utah that sentiment is growing,” said a source who has consulted on several Utah political campaigns. “The war is hitting close to home. We’re starting to see more than just the rare casualty from Utah. People are starting to pay attention.”

You bet. In just the last month four men and one woman from Utah were killed while serving in Iraq (counting three airmen from out of state but who were stationed at Hill Air Force Base). We have reached the point where death is landing in our back yards, and with alarming frequency. Not Ohio. Not California. Here.

And the best Utah’s senator for life can do is muster a weak finger-wagging at the president, then back a resolution supporting a troop buildup while demanding the wimpy Iraq government step up to the plate.

Where, in heaven’s name, are our leaders?

It’s fabulous for news junkies like myself when all the planets align for a fascinating story about politics, culture and human nature.

And if those forces don’t quite mesh completely, well by golly, we’ll give ‘em a nudge. Like, maybe, find a way to link Mitt Romney and a killer sore spot in LDS Church history.

Example: A new film, titled “September Dawn,” is scheduled for national release May 4. Its subject is the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Mormon settlers in southwestern Utah disguised themselves as Indians and launched a surprise attack on a wagon train of non-Mormons making its way westward. One hundred twenty men, women and children were killed. John D. Lee, the supposed mastermind of the attack, was executed as a result. But historians, writers, folklorists and journalists have for more than a century speculated on LDS prophet Brigham Young’s responsibility in the crime. No conspiracy on his part has ever been proven, but authorities of various stripes (except those in official positions with the church) have postulated that Young had a direct hand in the scandal.

Later tonight, KSL-TV reporter John Hollenhorst will report on the new film — which quite honestly, looks pretty cheezy and melodramatic. It stars Jon Voight as a deranged-looking Lee. Voight is in the twilight of his career, I’d go so far as to say in his roccoco period. I digress.

John has decided to link the upcoming movie with Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, and how it might reflect on a general opinion that some big hulking church in Utah calls the shots in his political life.

That seems like a little stretch, but every reporter and blogger I know living outside the D.C. beltway is trying to scratch out a story about Mitt as the adopted son of Utah who saved the 2002 Winter Olympics, so why not the Mountain Meadows connection? In the news biz, if Romney so much as stopped in a Greyhound Bus station for an hour in Salt Lake City, it would be considered fair game for the all-important “local connection.”

Therefore, Mitt is one of ours forever. He’s going to put us on the map. Hey! Has anyone on the campaign beat captured Mitt sipping cold caffeine yet?

John H. came to the house this morning, seeking hubby Ted Wilson’s political expertise on the film’s possible impact on Mormons and church hierarchy (dredging up, as occurs about every 10 years, yet another analysis on the shame the church shares for its connection to Mountain Meadows). And yep, John plumbed the Romney connection — how the film’s anticipated message of Young as the massacre mastermind — might play with potential Mitt supporters or how it could affect his chances among those who question his connection to LDS Church leaders if he ends up running the country.

Wowsers. It’s going to be some year of candidate scrutiny leading up to the early primaries and caucuses next winter. Buckle up and hold on.

It’s always hard to know how people outside our Zion Curtain look at the rougher-hewn side of Mormonism. I grew up here, left for many years and returned 10 years ago when I determined it was time to return to the mountains, my mom, and a political and social culture that simultaneously edifies and enrages me.

So, if you are lucky enough to live here in Utah, tune into KSL-Channel 5 tonight at 10 p.m. John will dissect the Mitt/Mountain Meadows kinda-sorta connection. And Ted — who discusses the massacre as a permanent public relations challenge for the LDS Church — looks FABULOUS in his tan plaid jacket and necktie.

I met independent broadcaster Jennifer Napier-Pearce for coffee today, and for a brief interview for her weekly podcast. Jennifer used to cover news at NPR-affiliate KPCW-FM and frequently fills in at the other NPR-affiliate in Salt Lake City, KUER-FM.

So there we were, sipping latte and chai on a Monday mid-morning, two spectacular and brilliant dames who no longer have the luxury of a regular paycheck. In these new jobs, we both are working 200 feet above the ground without a net. Or, as I tell people these days, “my ass is hanging out there in the air now, every time I sit down at my MacBook.”

I have no editor, no lawyer to advise me on libel or privacy questions, no desk (unless you count my stool at the kitchen bar). Whew.

Well, that’s background.

Jennifer is on to something here in Salt Lake. She started her podcast last year. She offers 30 minutes — typically covering three features and/or interviews — of news, politics, and culture.

She contacted me last week to talk about my foray into blogging.

My favorite moment in the interview came when Jennifer asked me about my heavy focus on Utah stuff. See, in my farewell column in The Salt Lake Tribune I took a not-so-subtle jab at the newspaper’s push for staff writers to keep blogs, in addition to their regular duties in the print version. I always opposed doing a blog there, not because I’m some fat grumpy neo-luddite who fights progress and the march of technology. I simply figured my column three times a week WAS my blog. I put my best work into the column. I could never understand the people who wrote their stories for the print version, then saved all their best quotes, images and liveliest writing in the blogs.

So here I am, trying to blog. It’s tough.

My best answer to Jennifer’s question was this: “I’m a phony.” Then I told her how I’m doing what I do best — looking at: wonder+insanity=Utah and blogging about it. I won’t get rich. But I like it.

Oh. Jennifer tells me my interview will be available this Friday.