by Dennis Myers
This Modern WorLd
by tom tomorrow
Ready for winter? Asked in downtown along the Truckee River
William Rittenhouse Bicycle store owner
No. I ride a lot so I’ve got to get a little more cold gear and hopefully have a good winter.
Kat Gorman Legal assistant
No, because I hate winter. It’s cold. I’m from California, and I like it warm and rainy and not shivering cold.
Gerry Green Job seeker
Too close to home
No, because it’s too cold, and I don’t know where I’m going to stay. I’m hoping to get a room and get out of the elements.
community will never go away for the friends and “Three people were killed in Northwest Reno.” The news family of those two boys. spread on Nov. 8 like the sudden descent of night. Professional counselors say dealing with this sort This is the kind of horrible news communities fearof tragedy is sure to be uncomfortable, but most agree fully anticipate. Like the pause before the second shoe that the most appropriate thing to say to the survivors hits the floor, it’s both sudden and expected. is to express condolences, and not to say nothing just As the story unfolds on television and on the cover because you can’t think of something profound to of the daily newspapers, dribs and drabs of details leak say. Understand that there is no right or wrong way to out—the horrible circumstances by which those people grieve, and there is no right timeline. Those who’ve died, who found the bodies, who the neighbors were. lost a loved one can attest to the fact that waves of We can’t turn away. It’s too real. It’s too sad. It’s sadness can wash over them even years down the road. too common. Most of us never knew them, but These days, social media is part the photos of those two happy boys of the public mourning. Indeed, It’s too real. felt like a hand that reached out and many of the falsities that make it tightened around the heart of newspainto the public discussion have their per readers and television viewers. The community, like roots on social media. But social media also brings the surviving family members, must deal with its grief, home the fact that even a city the size of Reno is but and everyone will handle it differently. As much as we’d a village in the post-internet world, and these victims like to just forget, these horrible events can’t be not talked and the fractured ones who have to pick up the pieces about, because ignoring them doesn’t get at the root of the are friends of friends, if not friends. problem, doesn’t enable our community to recognize the Austin and Jacob Deane were killed by their father, signs—if there are signs to be recognized—that may help Rob, who then killed himself. Their mother, Ashley, is us to one day prevent a tragedy of this order. a member of Reno’s artistic community. Our hearts go out to the victims, but there is little It’s human nature to try to pull lessons out of tragwe can do other than send financial help to family edy. All the clichés come to mind—another mentally members who remain to cope. It hardly seems enough. ill person with a gun, male violence, lives cut too That helpless feeling makes the tragedy all the more short, too soon. difficult to accept. Ashley Deane’s friends have set It’s the senselessness of it that will remain after up a page by which members of the community can the cameras and reporters and well-wishers move on contribute to moveyourmountain.org/campaign/Ashley to the next tragedy. These are wounds that never heal, Deane#story. Ω and the sense that there’s something missing in the
OPINION
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NEWS
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GREEN
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FEATURE STORY
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ARTS&CULTURE
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ART OF THE STATE
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FOODFINDS
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FILM
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MUSICBEAT
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NIGHTCLUBS/CASINOS
Joe Wrightman Casino dealer
You got to get used to winter around here. You know that. There’s only a four-month summer. I’m a warmweather person. I don’t know what I’m doing here.
Andy Wasson Musician
Yes, I am. I like cooler weather, and I have a nice warm jacket, so I’m ready for it.
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THIS WEEK
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MISCELLANY
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NOVEMBER 20, 2014
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RN&R
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