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Dear People,

I really don’t have words to describe my feelings today.

I was having trouble sleeping, so I was awake in till around 2 am, the phone rang at 7:30am-ish. “Man, are you okay?” (Grunt, sounds like Mike, what’s on his mind? Oh, I should get ready for church, I am the sound man, after all.) He sounded concerned to the point of being on the verge of tears. I became much more focused. “What’s up?” He related how there had been shootings. I have responsibilities at my church two blocks away and he was concerned about me. It seems a fellow started a shooting spree at the Latah County Court House around 11pm, then started sniping anyone he could see from the bell tower of the 1st Presbyterian Church of Moscow, directly across the street. The Moscow Police and Latah County Sheriff’s Office had the church surrounded and tried to talk the fellow into giving up peacefully. They resorted to storming the building. They found two dead in the church and one officer has died in the shooting. One of the dead was found next to an automatic weapon in the church and is thought to be the gunman.

I am a bit shaken. One man has single-handedly doubled the historical murder rate in the city limits of Moscow Idaho, in a church I went to as a child, in the town I’ve lived in since second grade.

I’m a Unitarian Universalist. We are expected to very thoughtfully listen to all the various ideas and beliefs we seek out, are shown and come across, carefully evaluate everything, then make up our own minds. We don’t give easy answers to tough questions. Often, the answer is “I don’t know”. We recently got a new minister. Today is the day we will install her; make it official. She wrote an E-mail and sent it to all of us after church;

“Dear Ones,

The line in the last hymn we sang at today’s (2nd) stellar service really spoke to me in light of our current community shooting tragedy:

“Wake, now, compassion, give heed to the cry’
Voices of suffering fill the wide sky;
Take as your neighbor both stranger and friend,
Praying and striving their hardship to end.”

From the time services began at 9:30 to its completion by 12:15, a number of folks have offered beautiful, creative ways to offer support to the Presbyterian Church. We do know that there’ll be a gathering circle in our congregation planned by the Compassionate Communication Network at 7 p.m. in our sanctuary. Be on the watch for a general email by Tuesday .a.m. for further information. I also know that the Presbyterian Church has asked area churches to hold a service each night this week in various locations. Again, we will keep you informed.

Thereby we take as our Presbyterian neighbors friends. Surely this community came together over 6 years ago when 9/11 happened. This tragedy is right here at home and we grieve and support each other. But please know we live…and I do hope to see you at tonight’s installation service.

Life and death stand side by side. Please know I’ll be available to visit with anyone who feels a need to talk. Just call the church office at 882-4328.

With great love and respect,
Kayle”

I’m glad we chose her, especially now that a bit of the madness of the wider world has intruded into my peaceful town and university.

Regards,

Rod

I'm so sorry that this crappy lightning struck so close to you Rod.
The world is having so many nut flare-ups.

This shows how much one individual can shape the lives of others-
some positive, some horribly negative.

I'm glad you were spared.

I'm sure sorry this happened.

I'm glad you're ok.

--James

I'm sorry this happened to your community, too. Just this evening I was riding home on the Amtrak when we heard a sudden, very loud metallic thump on the ceiling of the car. It was quite startling, everyone jumped and looked around. I glanced out the window and saw 3-4 youths running away from the tracks...whooping it up and sinfully gleeful. They had obviously just successfully launched a rock, brick, or similar item that struck the moving train.

They gave little or no thought to what might have happened if the brick, or whatever, had hit the train with enough force to do life-threatening damage. Or, worse yet, maybe they DID think about it, and that was what encouraged them.

I guess all you can do is make sure you treasure what you have, while you have it, cause you never know when it will end. It's not fair, but sometimes life isn't.

I knew someone on this board lived down in Moscow but I couldn't remember who it was.

Glad you're OK.

It sounds like your minister is a really good person. I like the part in the hymn "Take as your neighbor both stranger and friend". I'm sorry the people in your town are going through such a terrible time.

I am so sorry that you've had to endure this! And I echo what has already been said...that you are ok.

First, so glad you are safe.

Strength to all involved, courage as well. May peace and the love of friends help the healing along. It is often the horrors that bring us, however rudely, to consciousness about the need for each other.

I was never in any personal danger, I just feel for my comunity. I'm okay, all things considered. Oy!

My sincerest condolences to your town.
In my town , there were 7 homicides this weekend.
I truly, truly hope your town never, ever experiences what we go through every weekend.

Rod,

boy, there is much, far too much, of this going on recently. We had our mall shooter a month or so ago - just a few blocks from our house and I was nearly there (luckily I had bought an extra pair of pants for my son the day before). It sure shook our family sense of security and reality for a week or two...but you come to terms with it. The more you learned about the shooter, the more you realized there were multiple signs and events that should have told people he was an imminent danger, and the more you realize that our current mental health system is not designed to handle folks who probably need long term institutionalization yet have no family to support them.

It sure can turn you world upside down, especially when it occurs somewhere you frequent often. Sounds like you have a great UU minister on hand during these trying times. Hang in there, support each other, and hopefully they will uncover something about the shooter's past which will put things into perspective - not that it excuses the behavior, but at least maybe you can see where it came from which I think helps.

ChasR - I'm from KC - we've frequently been in the top 10 or even top 3 most violent cities in America. Mass, random seeming, shootings are different than a high homicide weekend, day or month. I can't explain why...but it is different and it truly shatters your sense of security.

Eric