State Fair

I am at a loss.

I'm going to talk about the stage collapse at the State Fair. It's probably going to be controversial. I don't know. But it will be an honest reflection of how I feel.

I heard about the collapse the same way I hear about most of my news: Facebook. CNN is usually johnny-on-the-spot with breaking news, but short on facts for at least a half hour. So when I saw the blurb, I clicked the link, got confused because there was no attached story, and then started investigating further. Soon enough, other friends on FB started posting about it - either sending out prayers or attaching links to the news story. I learned what little I could Saturday night and then did what I always do when something like this happens. I said a prayer, closed my computer and went to bed.

There were more posts about it Sunday morning. I read a few as I was getting ready for church, but it seemed to be more of the same. I turned on the radio on my way to church - 92.3 WTTS - and realized that they were "playing them on." It was pretty much a concert of quietest rock songs playing for the victims and their families. And then the DJ started talking about the Red Cross, and how you could go to their website if you were trying to locate a loved one.

This was much bigger than I had thought.

I have never been to the State Fair. I have never really had a desire to go to the State Fair. The closest I will ever get is watching Rogers and Hammerstein's 1945 musical State Fair. It's safe to say that I am not personally invested in this type of social setting.

I had forgotten that a lot of people are.

So I did some more digging. It wasn't hard. All the local websites had news, WTTS has a page dedicated to what happened, and all the national news machines were covering the aftermath. Everyone was covering it from a different angle. The locals were covering it from the witness' point of view. One of the national agencies did a broad sweep of accidents similar to this in recent history. Yet another presented the story from Sugarland's (the band scheduled to play) point of view.

Then I saw the video.

It was innocuously attached to an article on the accident. I clicked it, thinking it was going to be some kind of interview with a witness, because surely, they wouldn't show tha-

Oh.

It got worse. Because I couldn't just watch it once. I watched it again. Trying to see how it started. Trying to hear what people were saying. Following individual people on the ground until they were covered by rigging and tarp.

It's sick.

A few weeks ago, there was a man who reached a little too far for a baseball thrown into the stands at a game. He died. There's a video of that happening that was NOT shown on the news.

So what makes this different? Because more people died? Because it was taken from a distance?

I can't wrap my head around it. Any of it.

My heart is heavy. I will continue to pray for the victims (and that's a whole other discussion) and their families.

But this is the last time I will talk about it.

(This was partially inspired by a blog from Pat Monahan of Train.)