It has been just six months since the closing night of the Route 91 Harvest festival, when 58 concertgoers were killed and hundreds more were injured by a sniper on the Strip. The grief is still fresh. The pain still pulses.
Creating a memorial
While the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority was celebrated for its role in the weeks immediately following the Oct. 1 shooting, that isn’t likely to be the case when it comes to memorializing the tragedy and building a permanent tribute to the victims and heroes.
The Columbine Memorial is a small, paved park with a water feature near the entrance and, in the center, a circle of plaques names each victim. Steps out from the center circle, on a surrounding wall, carefully curated quotes from survivors, teachers, parents and former President Bill Clinton make the tragedy impossible to forget.
The Pulse nightclub still stands, nearly two years after a mass shooting at the once-vibrant spot in Orlando. The question now, though: what to do with it?
In San Bernardino, the county government is leading the memorial planning discussions, along with input from victim families and survivors. Officials have already hired a consultant. There is little concern about money.
Charleston church’s pastor hopes memorial to the “Emanuel 9” will capture the city’s love and forgiveness.
When it came time for Virginia Tech to decide on a permanent memorial to the victims of a 2007 massacre, the answer “lied with what the students did that very first night.”
More than 30 years ago, an unremarkable afternoon at a crowded McDonald’s just north of the Mexican border was interrupted with gunfire. And after all this time, the pain is still fresh.
With a memorial due for completion in just a few short months, excitement in Aurora, Colorado, is gradually beginning to stifle the somber lingering of grief.
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