Tragedy in Vandal Country
Yesterday, a gunman killed three and wounded two in my college town of Moscow, Idaho. The gunman killed a Moscow Police Department officer, Lee Newbill, and an elderly church caretaker, Paul Bauer, before turning the gun on himself.
Having lived on the Palouse while attending the University of Idaho from 1992 until 1999, a tragedy like this seems even more real to me than other tragedies. I know this community. Moscow was the first city that I ever loved. I miss many things about living in Northern Idaho, particularly my college radio station, my favorite food co-op, and the jazz festival. Moscow is the kind of sleepy, liberal college town where safety is nearly taken for granted–where many people don’t always lock their front doors or cars. Most of the crime that happens in Moscow is limited to bicycle thefts and snatched bookbags at that time of the semester when students are selling their textbooks back to the bookstore.
My heart goes out to the dead and wounded. I’m also thinking about my old friends who still live in Moscow, whose sense of peace is shattered in an abrupt and real way today. Every one of these shootings is a monumental tragedy. This one speaks a little closer to me, because I know and love this wonderful community that I once proudly called home.
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