The Sun Shines on Trolley
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.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:29 am
I also plan on visiting the Square…today, tomorrow, and jsut as I always have. Shine on.
February 15th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Multiply the deaths by 20, have it happen every day and that’s what it is like in Baghdad. Meaningless deaths, senseless violence, grief everywhere. The U.S. got rid of Hussein only to launch a more hideous attack on the nation.
The War at home and in Iraq has to stop. As Congressman Dennis Kucinnich said five years ago, “We have our own weapons of mass destruction to remove. They are called ignorance, poverty, homelessness, and disease right in our own cities.”