Thursday, February 14, 2008

Trouble comes to town

Dekalb is a quiet, lovely old Midwestern town on the plains of northern Illinois. It’s a wonderful place to photograph and a number of images from Dekalb have graced this blog over the last three years. Northern Illinois University sits on the western edge of Dekalb, just before the town gives way to the wide expanse of the prairie beyond it.

Occasionally, an intense storm will roll off the plains and buffet this small community. But that’s to be expected. What wasn’t expected was the storm that rolled through today in the form of a gunman who burst into a lecture hall on the NIU campus, opening fire on the students who had gathered there. Six young lives, including the gunman, were snuffed out today. A dozen or more were wounded. The entire community is now dealing with a horror that previously had been read about in headlines. Today this town is the headline.

As with the storms that will roll through this coming spring and summer, Dekalb will stand strong, just as I am sure it will stand strong through this latest storm. But there are some storms where even after recovery, things will have been changed forever.

Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Out here, on the East coast, whenever I mentioned my alma mater (NIU), no one had ever heard of it.

Unfortunately that is no longer the case.

My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones, and to the quiet school in the middle of the cornfield.

Baltimore_Yeti said...

What is the name of the shooter?
Where did he live?
Do we have a photo of him?
Motive for the shoting?
Any personal details about his life would be most helpful.

Wanda said...

There are several sad stories on blogs today. We also had sad news of a dear friend killed in a quad accident in the dunes.

Prayers to all who have suffered loss this day.