A city mourns in a summer of losses

The senseless death of basketball star Fedonta “JB” White has left Santa Fe mourning. If a city could shed physical tears, this one would be crying right now. As it is, individuals — whether friends and family or simply people who knew White by reputation — are grief stricken.

Any life lost to gun violence is tragic. To see someone die at 18, on the brink of life’s adventures, is unspeakably sad. White was on his way to play Division I basketball — he finished Santa Fe High early to play for the University of New Mexico. We’ll never know where basketball would have taken him. A top 100 prospect in the United States, he was one of the best basketball recruits out of Santa Fe in recent years, if not ever.

At 6 feet, 8 inches tall, White’s height was matched by his heart. Basketball prowess had made him a local hero, and the young man responded by signing autographs for kids, meeting elementary schoolchildren and giving generously of himself.

That’s one reason his death hit so hard. People felt they knew JB — short for June Bug — even when they didn’t.

They watched him dunk the ball, smile at kids, and suffer and recover from injury. We all wanted to see him as a Lobo next year, a team he chose because UNM recruited him before he became more widely known. Other, bigger schools had come calling, but White was loyal to those who were loyal to him. As his coach-to-be Paul Weir said, “To witness him effortlessly float in the cherry and silver and fulfill his dreams would have been the experience of a lifetime — for all of us. But for now we pray for JB and his family, honor his beauty both inside and out as passionately as we can.”

And so we mourn. But he’s not the only loss of this surreal pandemic summer.

White is the third teenager to die violently this summer in Santa Fe. Two — White on Saturday and 17-year-old Ivan Armando Perez Chumacero on July 15 — were shot. One — 17-year-old Aiko Perez — was stabbed June 5.

Their lives, too, have been cut short too early. They had friends and family who loved them and who remain devastated. Their lives will never be the same.

Some day, another day, we will write again about America’s love affair with violence.

The nation has a Wild West mentality that sees a shove escalating into gunfire, with the need to dominate always in the forefront. There are too many guns and knives in the wrong hands — in these cases, young hands. The shooting suspects are 17 and 16. The young man accused of the stabbing of his friend during an acid trip is 18.

Their decisions made in an instant — to shoot, to stab — change the trajectory of lives.

Fedonta White will never play for the Lobos in the Pit.

Ivan Armando Perez Chumacero won’t start his senior year at Capital High or pursue a career in music, his passion.

Aiko Perez won’t take classes at Santa Fe Community College this fall.

All that promise snuffed out.