February 7th

Today is the first anniversary of the tragic shooting at Kirkwood City Hall. Some people in Kirkwood refer to that as "February 7th" the way the rest of the country speaks of "September 11th."

On my way to this morning's community dialogue meeting sponsored by the Community for Understanding and Healing, I stopped by City Hall because I figured the light would be nice for pictures on the east-facing front. While I was there, someone left flowers on the door.

The front door is always locked now, for security reasons. It's no real loss of function for the citizens of Kirkwood -- we all use the back door where the parking is. But, if you believe that architecture has meaning, there is something sad about not being able to walk into the grand porticoed entrance of our City Hall. Still, amidst the sadness that we have experienced in the last year, this is not so great of a sorrow.

I'm pleased and proud to report that the locked front door does not seem to be a metaphor of anything in Kirkwood, now. There are certainly things that we Kirkwoodians can find to complain about. But the fact that we can and do complain about it in both official and unofficial settings means that the door is metaphorically open even if it's physically closed.