Star Gazing
I am writing this post on November 21...to be posted on December 16 to my website (https://www.pamelaranderson.org/ ). It was my plan to write about the night sky in winter, when it’s cold and the sky is often clear and very dark. I wanted to mention the Milky Way, which dazzled the night sky when I was a child but now is only visible (to me) when I’m traveling (the Milky Way is spectacular on moonless nights in Bisbee, Arizona, or Independence Pass, Colorado).
That was my plan. But this morning I cannot think of anything beyond the senseless, tragic, horrific shooting that took place last night at Club Q in Colorado Springs. 5 people died and at least 25 were wounded (as I write, the news is still unspooling). The gunman—a 22-year-old man—used a long gun in the shooting, and it was heroic patrons at the club who confronted him, caught him, and prevented even more deaths and injuries.
In a statement, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said that Club Q was a safe haven for the LGBTQ Community. As with so many previous nights, on November 20, people were gathered to dance and to be with friends in a place that welcomed and embraced them. That this shooting happened on that particular day—Trans Day of Remembrance (an annual observance that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence )—strikes me as an intentional hate crime although, at this point, the police are stopping short of calling it that. (In the coming days, I feel sure they will begin to call it what it is...another hideous hate crime that has now robbed 5 (will there be more from this shooting?) young people of their lives.)
When this reflection posts to my website in 3 weeks, who knows what other tragedies will have occurred in our country. But, by then, the news cycle will have moved on from Club Q. They—and we—will have moved on even as people in Colorado Springs and Club Q try to put their lives back together. Even as they and their families and friends suffer and try to recover. The failure to remember is another tragedy.
Let this post be a memory. When you look outside tonight or any night, please look at the stars and remember those people who were lost at Club Q (Sandy Hook. Uvalde. Parkland. Chardon. Pittsburgh. And on and on and on and on and on...). When you think about those people, remember what Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”
Let those who have been slain be held as stars in the Milky Way.
