Comments

1
My heart goes out. What a good place, and what good people.
2

In the window there: http://campl.us/jPC7

3
@2, I'm just thinking of the people who were brave enough to go in there and place those messages after all that happened inside today.

Bless them...
4
I'm sorry Grant. Sad, sad, terrible day.
5
Kyle Huff redux. They always go after the sweet harmless ones.
6
I hope Cafe Racer will let those of us who dug the place, but were not regulars, know what we can do to help in whatever way possible.
7
(((GRANT)))
8
Oh Grant, now you've gone and made me cry. My heart breaks for everyone touched by this tragedy.
9
That audio is amazing - teary for my hometown way over here in Iowa.
10
@5 and now you've made me weep all over again, damn you. Exactly.

I've known Don for almost 30 fucking years...a sweet hootenanny folksinger artist with a heart of gold, who would have bent over backwards to help the guy who killed him.

Sweet harmless ones indeed.
11
this is a good piece.
12
I am so sorry, Grant. Several years ago I lost a friend in a shooting rampage in Salt Lake City (Trolley Square Mall), so this scene today was eerily familiar. It still makes no sense whatsoever. My condolences to the families and friends of the victims, as well as the family of the shooter.

The Stranger covered this story well and with respect for those involved, unlike another publication in this town I will not name.
13
So so sad. Makes me want to hug all my loved ones tight. And you too Sloggers.
14
@5, I thought of Huff too (and I'm sure many others did). What strikes me is that they both went after the communities - groups of adults who had come together to share life, either in the context of a cafe - day in, day out - or in the context of just one night at a party.

These killers (I hypothesize) want to connect on some level, to be part of the group, but they have a deep inability to do so - either they can't quite manage the social skills or they just have a barrier to letting themselves feel connected. The pain of seeing others who are happy together is too much and they have to destroy it, possibly justifying their actions with scorn or hatred to mask the pain, emptiness and loneliness.
15
@14: The group that Huff rampaged was also a tight-knit community. He accepted an invitation to a small after party hosted by a group of close-knit but open minded friends, and then he killed a bunch of them.

People who commit such atrocities are broken beyond repair. It just sucks that our society makes it so easy for monsters to get guns, and so hard to take guns away from violent assholes lest one of them turn out to be a Republican.
16
Well said, Grant. Thank you.
17
Well said Jude. We are interdependent. Our brains wire wrong if we don't receive love. I also have to wonder if these people (Kyle Huff and today's shooter) had received proper mental health care if these insane shootings could've been avoided.
18
@15, yes I remember that it was a close-knit group of friends, but I also recall there were others invited that were new to the group (I could be misremembering). What stands out to me is that the other new comers were able to fit in, accept the invitation to connect if only for that night, while Huff could not.

@17 I agree that these people should have received proper mental health treatment. As a person who works with kids, I can't help feeling that more attention should be paid towards intervention with kids. Not that child therapy could necessarily have prevented these shootings, but the structures that lead to this kind of 'break' get laid down in early childhood. If they had received the help they needed then, it might not have come to it. Meanwhile, we have decisions to make about the care of our current generation of children...
19
Thank you for adding the audio—it's just beautiful. My condolences to everyone involved in all the violence this week. Shit, my condolences to all of Seattle.
21
Beautiful piece, thank you for sharing this with all of us. My whole family just loves that place and the people who frequent it. Indeed, sad day in Seattle.

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