From the Colorado Sun, a newspaper born out of the ashes of Denver journalism.
“Back to normal.”
That phrase, which has been dangling in front of us for months as the light at the end of the tunnel, became a dark and haunting reality yesterday in Boulder.
Colorado experienced yet another heart-wrenching, emotionally draining day after a shooter killed 10 people, including one of the first police officers to respond to calls of distress at the King Soopers in Boulder’s Table Mesa neighborhood.
The incident, just days after eight people were killed in a rampage in Atlanta, was both shocking and distressingly familiar for Coloradans. The feeling that the pandemic brought a reprieve from gun violence in America was a false one —
America set a record in 2020 with 41,000 gun-related deaths — and in the span of a few minutes yesterday, even that false hope was shattered inside a grocery store, one of the few communal spaces most of us shared during this pandemic.
Colorado has suffered through some of the most high-profile mass shootings in the country — it’s not just a hunch,
there is some data backing it up() — and there’s a temptation to react to this latest tragedy with numb resignation.
But as we learn more about the victims this morning and the crime itself throughout what will likely be a long investigation, we need to resist the urge to just slip into sadness. You can’t control everything in the world, but wherever you
can determine your own path, choose the one that leads to empathy, solidarity and compassion. It might not be a magic switch, but little by little we can build something better.
Our reporters were on the scene all day yesterday and are reporting from Boulder today, so keep an eye on
coloradosun.com,
Twitter,
Facebookand
Instagram for the latest updates.
In today’s newsletter, we have the latest on what we know — plus news from the rest of Colorado.
Let’s get to it.
— Eric
(Eric Lubbers)
